About Us

The Royal Academy of Engineering has been engaged as a Delivery Partner under the Newton-Bhabha Fund – an initiative of the Indian and UK Governments to enhance science, innovation and research cooperation between the two countries. As part of the Newton-Bhabha Fund the Academy has partnered with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to help enhance research and innovation capacity and improve engineering education within Tier 2 and Tier 3 engineering universities in India through building industry-academia linkages. This project is aimed at bringing industry and academia together by sharing industry scenario and knowledge to young graduates. The Industry Academia Partnership Programme aims to support Indian universities in improving their engineering education and research output through strengthening industry linkages and leveraging UK expertise. The programme is based upon the premise that increased linkages between industry and higher education can improve quality and foster innovation within pedagogy and practice of engineering, in turn enhancing employability of graduates and encouraging technology transfer into industry.

The project aims at enhancing industry input into engineering curricula and educational practice within Indian universities to improve practical engineering skills and also to enhance graduate employability. This can also enhance capacity of engineering educators within Indian universities to teach course content and use novel pedagogical methods to upskill the budding graduates. It is also focussed on strengthening the collaboration in research and knowledge-sharing between Indian academia-industry and with counterparts from the UK. The overall objective for the Programme is to strengthen the capacity of Indian engineering higher education and research institutions to carry out teaching, research and knowledge-related activities through partnership with industry and UK stakeholders.

The lead applicant under this initiative is National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT-Trichy). The Industry partner under this programme is Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Tiruchirappalli. This project is co-ordinated with University of Leicester, also the co-applicant in the project. The other collaborators in this project are National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology (NIFFT) Ranchi, Vishnu Institute of Technology (VIT) Bhimavaram and other partnering institutes.