Australia-India strategic research fund lays focus on combatting AMR and microbial infections

Union Minister for Science and Technology, Government of India, Dr Jitendra Singh has unveiled the results of the 15th round of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF).

This year, the AISRF has awarded funding to five projects across various disciplines, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, biotechnology, urban mining and electronic waste recycling, ultralow-cost solar and clean hydrogen technologies. These projects were selected through a rigorous evaluation process, ensuring they meet the highest standards of scientific excellence and have the potential for significant impact.

Funding for this year has focused on creating an AI-driven platform for monitoring soil carbon sequestration; Eco-friendly recovery of essential metals from obsolete mobile devices; Cost-effective solar thermal desalination by systems design with nanomaterials; Harnessing the immune system's power to combat antimicrobial resistance; and Advanced diagnostics and innovative therapeutics to detect and combat microbial infections.

Indian recipients are the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, Ludhiana; IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IISc Bangalore and AbGenics Life Sciences.

The selected projects reflect the diverse and cutting-edge research being conducted by Australian and Indian scientists. These initiatives are expected to yield valuable insights and solutions that will benefit both countries and the wider global community.

The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) is a bilateral programme that supports collaborative research projects between Australia and India. It aims to strengthen the scientific relationship between the two countries and address common challenges through joint research efforts.