IIT Bombay inks pact with Thales for PhD fellowship programme

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay and French electronic systems company Thales have signed an agreement to offer a PhD fellowship programme from July this year.

Through the ‘IIT Bombay-CNRS PhD fellowship scheme’, Thales and IIT B will collaborate on the use of laboratories and R&D (Research & Development) for industrial applications, according to a press release issued by the entities on Monday.

Thales chairman and CEO Patrice Caine said, “Promoting R&D as a way of fostering economic development is of mutual interest to both Thales and IIT Bombay, making this a preferred collaboration.

Given our longstanding commitment to the Indian market, this is a natural step forward towards strengthening the knowledge and innovation ecosystem in the country and being even closer to our clients.”

The students selected for the jointly supervised fellowships will have a PhD supervisor in India and a co-supervisor in France (from one of the identified CNRS laboratories).

The programme will provide highly qualified students of IIT Bombay with the opportunity to conduct a part of their research project in both countries in areas such as advanced electronics and electromagnetics or complex system engineering.

Devang V Khakhar, director, IIT Bombay, said, “We are delighted to collaborate with the global innovation leader, Thales, for this fellowship scheme.

It would provide our top students with an access to cutting-edge French technologies and advanced industrial environments to carry out research activities, and would set the ground for longstanding Indo-French partnerships.”

Srinivas Kaveri, director, CNRS in India, said, “This unique programme would not only foster research collaboration between India and France, but also drive industry-led innovation while enabling students to gain immense knowledge and exposure at the same time.”