Deadline: 26 April 2017
India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) invite proposals to a new 3-year research programme to improve water quality by providing a better understanding of the sources and fate of different pollutants and by supporting the development of management strategies and technologies to reduce pollution levels. The UK component of the programme has a budget of £4.2m terms of research effort by DST.
This collaboration is supported by the Newton-Bhabha Fund, established by the Governments of the UK and India to provide a framework for increasing research and innovation collaborations that support sustainable economic growth.
The aim of the programme is to provide end users such as policymakers, regulators, business and local communitieswith information and solutions that will help them tackle India’s water quality issues and secure the provision of clean water, rejuvenate rivers, and restore ecosystems.
Programme Scope
To address the water challenges the programme will support 8-10 projects focusing on one or more of the following research areas:
- Improving our ability to determine the presence of pollutants in water courses. The scope of this research area includes:
- Development of novel sensors to detect and monitor pollutants;
- Adaptation and modification of sensors to improve performance or to enable them to be deployed in Indian environments; and
- The design and testing of sensor networks.
- Understanding of the transport, transformation, interactions and fate of pollutants, including both established and emerging contaminants. The scope of this research area includes:
- Field and laboratory studies to ascertain the pathways and evolution of pollutants in water courses;
- Development of new models to aid understanding and management of water quality; and
- Determining how variables, such as land-use and rainfall patterns, influence water quality.
- Developing novel approaches to reduce or prevent pollution at source. The scope of this research area includes:
- Development of novel treatment approaches and technologies, for rural and urban areas;
- Exploring the potential for resource recovery from waste to reduce the level of pollutants reaching the environment; and
- Understanding the impact of treatments and removal of contaminants, for example quantifying how pollution levels change and how quickly, or determining if treatments create new pollution issues.
Eligibility Criteria
Applications to the India-UK Water Quality programme must include UK-Indian partnerships – i.e. include at least one India-based Principal Investigator and one UK based Principal Investigator. Only proposals that involve scientific collaboration between the UK and India will be considered. All proposals must have equal or proportionate participation from UK and Indian researchers.
How to Apply
A Notification of Intent to submit a proposal must be submitted by all potential applicants via email.
Eligible Countries: UK and India
For more information, please visit this link.