Article Posted on : - Oct 24, 2013

NEW DELHI (PTI): European defence major EADS has signed a pact with an Indo-French body for creating a new innovation initiative under which Indian universities and institutes would be provided funding for their research programmes.

"EADS signed a letter of intent (LoI) with Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research at the India-France Technology Summit 2013 for creating a new innovation initiative called the 'EADS-CEFIPRA Aerospace Programme'," EADS said in a release.

"Under this programme, calls will be given to leading Indian universities and institutes to propose research projects for funding.

"The programme aims to foster research in India in the field of aerospace, particularly related to topics such as avionics, composite materials, high performance computing, nanotechnology and applied mathematics," it said.

The LoI was signed by Arnaud Marfurt, EADS Vice-President, Innovation Works (International Operations) and Debapriya Dutta, Director, CEFIPRA.

Speaking on the occasion, Marfurt said, "This confirms our commitment to invest in promotion of aerospace research in India. India with its huge talent pool and top notch research institutes represents an important innovation hub for EADS.

Such initiatives not only add value to our global R&D and engineering efforts but also bring us closer to our customers here."