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International activities
The effects of the globalisation process are leading to the movement of people, capital, goods, services, information and technology across regional and national borders, resulting in a growing global competition. Investments in R&D are also becoming more and more internationally mobile seeking the regions and countries that offer the best conditions. This means that not only production and services are outsourced, but also research. Companies that wish to carry out research can now establish facilities in any part of the world and they are more prone to base their decisions on available local capabilities, costs and availability of qualified researchers. The development of new knowledge and innovations is increasingly taking place in different partnerships between research organisations and enterprises in different countries. Cross-border flows of research and development are now changing from USA, Europe and Japan towards emerging economies like China, India and Brazil.
Industry and the business community need incentives to collaborate in research networks and better information about how such collaboration can be brought about. If Sweden shall be able to continue to compete successfully in a knowledge-based economy, it is of fundamental importance that Swedish research and education are of world class.
With its emerging economy and a rapidly growing technical base, India is becoming an increasingly interesting potential partner in the area of education, research and joint ventures. The traditionally good technical educational level, neutral geopolitical positions and more recent significant technological advances in the two countries, point to many potential areas for active and fruitful collaboration between India and Sweden.
In this context it is of particular importance to point out that collaborations within science and technology are based on long term interests and can act as doorways for contacts between industries. Expansive and knowledge-intensive industries, traditional industries and the public sector all need access to new knowledge in order to develop technological innovations and modernize their operations. Research provides the basis for developing new knowledge.
On its path of rapid economic growth, India has a unique opportunity to become a leading nation in environment technology and system solutions for sustainable development. Several facts make India potentially a strong force in implementing innovative approaches for sustainable development, taking into account its great biodiversity, variety of its climatic and other conditions, and huge human capital but relatively lean per capita natural resources, on the basis of its increasingly powerful technology and economy. Sweden and India can be viewed as natural partners in the global effort towards sustainable development. Sweden has a unique tradition among the industrialized nations regarding development and implementation of environment technology. The particular strength of the Swedish model, which maintains a balance between state, industry and basic research, is striking. India can expand its know-how by its collaboration with the Swedish experts and in turn offer them the benefit of Indian experience and tacit knowledge. An active collaboration can lead to breaking new grounds in developing and implementing technology for sustainable development on a large scale.
Sustainable Development is an overreaching goal for Swedish Government policy and the Swedish Policy for Global Development clearly emphasizes sustainable use of natural resources and protection of the environment.
In December 2005 Sweden and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation on Science and Technology. Another MoU on sustainable development and environment will be signed in February 2008. These agreements form a basis for the Indo-Swedish cooperation through the Swedish network INSTEC (Centre for Indian-Swedish Cooperation on Technical Research and Education) with the aim to provide a long-term basis for expanding exchanges of human resources between India and Sweden on technical/engineering research as a platform for joint ventures and expanding industrial collaboration. The three specific objectives of INSTEC are to:
- Promote and support collaboration between Indian and Swedish academic/research institutions and industry in research (development of joint research projects, exchange of researchers/ post-graduates, etc).
- Promote and support exchange between Indian and Swedish academic/research institutions and industry in education (MSc, continuing and distant education programmes, exchange of students, teachers and teaching materials)
- Stimulate and help establish industrial contacts and promote joint ventures between interested Swedish and Indian enterprises and research institutes in all areas of technological and natural resource development.
INSTEC aims at collaboration between India and Sweden in all areas of mutual interest and benefit, creating competitive cross-boundary research environments taking advantage of the international competitiveness of Swedish and Indian industry to create value for users. In 2006 it was decided that the network should start within the area of sustainable development and environmental technology followed by other areas in due time.
In order to take better advantage of this potential for both countries, and significantly expand the collaboration over the next decade, we proposed the following actions for future cooperation with India to enhance sustainable development and cutting edge environmental technology for mutual benefits:
- To establish a platform in India for the Swedish network INSTEC
- To conduct a Mobile Workshop (Road-show) visiting 3-4 Indian cities
- To develop an Indian counterpart network on
Sustainable Development and Environmental Technology including the establishment of regional focal points for Indo-Swedish cooperation
- To participate in the creation of an academic research/development centre at an Indian IIT or University focussing on Sustainable Development and Environmental Technology
- To Carry out Indo-Swedish workshops on environmental technology and sustainable development, as step-stones towards the Millennium Development Goals
- To work for the development of an Indian Institute for Sustainable Development and Environmental Technology (IISDET)
The network decided that sustainable development and environmental technology will form the first area of cooperation with India. KTH and IVL jointly agreed to act through, the centre CUH, as a coordinator for the INSTEC activities. A set of meetings has been held during 2007 and 2008. Following the discussion within the network, funding agencies and our contacts in India it was decided as a first step, to organise three workshops at three different places in India during the week March 30 to April 6. The cities chosen were Hyderabad, Pune and New Dehli. The mission was extended with a visit to Trivandrum upon an invitation from the Kerala Government. Five participants were able to join this visit.
The workshops focused on sustainable urban development, comprising system and technology aspects. Sustainable urban development comprises areas of energy, transportation, water, sewage, waste and ecosystem services.
The purpose of the workshops was to:
1. Make a benchmarking of the present status of research in the field of sustainable urban development in Sweden and India
2. Determine joint research and/or development projects of mutual interest that can be funded by Indian and Swedish agencies
3. Form an Indo-Swedish platform/network of actors in the field of sustainable development and environmental technology, consisting of universities, government institutions and private industry.
4. Investigate the possibilities of establishing regional focal points for Indo-Swedish cooperation within sustainable development and environmental technology.
In cooperation with Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment in Trivandrum, India and Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in Kochi, India, INSTEC arranged a workshop between December 10 — 12 2008, called “The Sustainable City — Technologies and Systems for Sustainable Development". The objective of the workshop was to bring together interested parties from universities, research organizations, industry and governmental organizations, with the purpose of initiating broad and diverse collaboration on development and implementation of environment technology and system solutions for sustainable urban development. The workshop promoted, apart from knowledge sharing, all forms of cooperation, from relatively small and short-term to long-term strategic cooperation and joint-ventures.
The workshop focused on new technologies and systems for sustainable urban development that mitigated the threat of climate change. Areas of interest were urban transportation and fuels, urban planning and management of water and waste, energy and ICT for sustainable development. Existing knowledge will be applied and further developed in order to solve current and future problems paving the way to a more sustainable development.
Project leaders
Göran Baurne, Division of Water Management, KTH
E-mail: baurne@kth.se
Tel: +46-(0)8-790 86 24
Hans Lundberg, IVL
E-mail: hans.lundberg@ivl.se
Tel: +46-(0)8-598 563 00 (Switchboard)
Increased cooperation between IVL and KTH in Asia
The aim of this pre-study is to consider the following issues:
- The extent of IVL´s and KTH´s previous and current activities in China.
- Suggestion on how we can coordinate current activities in China.
- Which development potentials each part estimate being interesting, and to bring up suggestions on how a cooperation can be performed in the best way for obtaining maximal benefit.
- Bring up concrete suggestions on how the cooperation KTH/IVL can be deepened. Strengths and weaknesses are identified.
- Bring up suggestions on how we can build a strong international platform for sustainable production and consumtion.
- Which possibilities do exist for project financing (EU, KIna, Vinnova, ADB)?
- Strengthen global links of the research and innovation environments.
The pre-study will result in an activity plan for how the cooperation is going to be performed between IVL and KTH in China. It will also present alternatives of financing for this and an complete project application.
Project leaders
Ronald Wennersten, Division of Industrial Ecology, KTH
E-mail: rw@ket.kth.se
Tel: +46-(0)8-790 63 47
Östen Ekengren, IVL
E-mail: osten.ekengren@ivl.se
Tel: +46-(0)8-598 563 00 (Switchboard)