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A Memorandum of Understanding towards the creation of a new funding scheme to bring together leading research centres in India and Europe to address major social science challenges was signed on Friday, 21st January, with representatives of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and representatives of four European science funding agencies from Germany, UK, France and the Netherlands.
For the first time, an Indian research organisation is joining forces with national social science research organisations from across Europe to find solutions to some of the biggest global problems including economic growth and development, energy and climate change, health and well-being. This agreement will extend the current Open Research Area model which enables research teams in multiple countries to apply for funding from their national agencies through a single application and peer review process.

The Open Research Area Model is supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) of UK, the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

This new scheme will provide additional funding to current investments to develop international activities and knowledge exchange, building on existing research centres in Europe and India.  The agreement is initially scheduled to run for three years and applications will be sought to include at least two institutions from both Europe and India.