A number of projects and networks - real and virtual - have been set up to facilitate Indo French Research.
The Indo French Laboratory for Solid State Chemistry (LAFICS – Laboratoire Franco Indien de Chimie du Solide) is a network of 6 laboratories. Run by the Department of Science and Technology and the CNRS, the network promotes collaborative work in solid state chemistry.
LAFICS has promoted numerous exchanges and collaborations between French and Indian scientists; in 2006 – 2007 alone, 27 common publications were produced thanks to the laboratory.
The laboratory is coordinated jointly by Professor Claude Delmas (ICMCB Bordeaux) and Professor Ramasesha (Indian Institute of Science)
The France Indian Cyberuniversity (FICUS) is a collaboration between the Indian Institute of Science and the Réseau Universitaire Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées. The cyberuniversity creates a virtual platform for the exchange of scientific information between India and France. Through the programme, students and scientists at the IISc have been able to interact with French scientists and participate in discussions and teach modules taught at French Universities.
In September 2009; the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble successfully taught courses in nanosciences using the cyberuniversity platform. The Indian end of the programme is coordinated by Professors Balakrishnan and Rangarajan of the Indian Institute of Science.
The Indo French Programme for Research on Weather and Climate (IFPRoWaC / ProFIRMeC) is a joint partnership between the CNRS and its Indian counterpart, the CSIR. Coordinated by the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace in Paris and the Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation (CMMACS) in Bangalore, the programme is a network that brings together a number of Indian and French research institutes to work on questions of weather, meteorology and climate.
Other participating institutions in India are the National Institute for Oceanography and the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science.
The coordinators of this programme are Dr Jean-Philippe Duvel (ENS) and Dr Prashant Goswami (CMMACS).
ProFIRMeC replaces the Centre Franco Indien de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Climat.
The Indo French Centre for Organic Synthesis (CEFISO – Centre Franco Indien pour la Synthèse Organique) is a partnership between the DST and the CNRS. Coordinated by the researchers at the Université de Rennes I (Synthèse et Electrosynthèse Organiques) and the department of Organic Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, CEFISO / IFCOS is a network of 17 French and 11 Indian laboratories. Under CEFISO, a number of CEFIPRA projects have also taken place.
CEFISO is coordinated by Dr René Grée (Université de Rennes I) and Professor Chandrasekhar (Indian Institute of Science).
The French-Indian mission, Megha-Tropiques, will provide scientific data on the contribution of the water cycle to the tropical atmosphere, with information on condensed water in clouds, water vapour in the atmosphere, precipitation, and evaporation.It will also evaluate the radiation budget at the top of the atmosphere. The Megha-Tropiques micro satellite is a unique instrument for climate research both in terms of data collected and its specific orbit (a circular orbit with an inclination of 20° to the equator).
CNES and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will share joint responsibility for the satellite and science missions, with CNES acting as prime contractor for some of the instruments.
The basic principles of the MEGHA-TROPIQUES mission are to:
- provide simultaneous measurements of several elements of the atmospheric water cycle: water vapour, clouds, condensed water in clouds, precipitation and evaporation,
- measure the corresponding radiative budget at the top of the atmosphere,
- ensure high temporal sampling in order to characterise the life cycle of the convective system and to obtain significant statistics.
MEGHA-TROPIQUES is a mini-satellite using an indian platform (IRS). Its payload is constituted of:
- MADRAS: a microwave imager aimed mainly at studying precipitation and clouds properties
- SAPHIR: a 6 channels microwave radiometer for the retrieval of water vapour vertical profiles and horizontal distribution
- SCARAB: a radiometer devoted to the measurement of outgoing radiative fluxes at the top of the atmosphere.
France is the international collaborating partner of the new Indian Institute of Technology in Rajasthan. French academics and scientists are working closely with India in setting up the institute, which is currently based at IIT Kanpur.
Jointly funded by the MAEE, French research institutions and the Ministry for Science and Technology, these programmes were launched in 2005. They assist in the creation of long term research networks between India and France.
The currently funded programmes are:
‘Distributed and temporal models for control and verification’, coordinated by the Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI UMR 5800). Member institutes are:
-LaBRI, Laboratoire d’Informatique Algorithmique Fondements et Applications (LIAFA, UMR 7089 Paris 7), Laboratoire Spécification et Vérification (LSV – UMR 8643 CNRS et ENS)
- Chennai Mathematical Institute, Institute of Mathematical Sciences Chennai and the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore.
The coordinators of this network are Pascal Weil (LaBRI) and Madhavan Mukund (CMI).
‘R&D special fibres and components for optical communications’, coordinated by the Laboratoire de Physiqque de la Matière Condensée (LPMC, UMR 6622). Member institutes are:
- LPMC, Institut de Recherche en Communications Optiques et Microondes (IRCOM, UMR 6615), Laboratoire des Verres (LDV, UMR 5587), Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie des Matériaux Luminiscents (LPCML, UMR 5620).
- IIT Delhi, Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, IIT Roorkee, Centre for Development of Telematics.
The Coordinators of this network are Dr Gérard Monnom and Prof Bishnu Pal.
« Préparation et stockage laser d’états non-classiques de la lumière et de la matière », coordinated by the Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée (LPMC, UMR 6622). Member laboratories are :
- LPMC, Laboratoire Aimé Cotton (LAC UPR 20), Laboratoire de Photonique et Nanostructures (UPR 20), Centre de Physique Moléculaire Optique et Hertzienne (UMR 5798), Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux (UPR 9048) Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (UMR 8552)
- Jawaharlal Nehru University Delhi, IIT Delghi, Indian Institute of Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.
The coordinators of this network are Prof DB Ostrowsky (LPMC) and Prof Ajay K Sood (IISc).
‘Scientific research of water’, under the leadership of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. Member institutes are:
- BRGM, IRD, Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, Laboratoire de Mécanismes de Transfert en Géologie (UMR 5563), Hydrosciences Montpellier (UR 50), Laboratoire de Biotechnologie Environnementale INRA.
- Indian Institute of sciences, Centre for Environmental Studies, IIT Delhi, IFWWUT, CEFIRSE, CEFIRES.
The coordinators of this network are Dr JJ Braun (IRD) and Dr AK Mittal (IIT Delhi).
‘Variabilité du système terre-océan-atmosphère à multi-échelles’, coordinated by the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (LMD). Partner institutes are
- LMD ( UMR 8539), Laboratoire d’Océanographie et du Climat : Expérimentation et Approches Numériques (ex LODYC UMR 7159), laboratoire d’Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographie Spatiales (UMR 5566), Laboratoire d’Etude du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique (UMR 9112), Laboratoire Ondes et Acoustiques (UMR 7587), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (UMR 1572).
- National Institute of Oceanography, IIT Mumbai, Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, IISc, IIT Delhi, Centre for Mathematical Modelling and Computer Simulation.
The coordinators of this network are Jean-Philippe Duvel (LMD) and Prashant Goswami (CMMACS)
