INSPIRE, which stands for International Strategic Partnerships in Research and Education, was launched in September by the British Council with the aim of funding and strengthening partnerships between UK universities and HE institutions in Central and South Asia.
Eligible partner institutions can be based in Iran, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan or Afghanistan. Various funding schemes fall under the INSPIRE umbrella, from higher level strategic institution to institution partnership-building to researcher exchange schemes.
Exploratory Partnership Grants (.doc) offer a small pots of funding (£2000) for institutional representatives from the UK to visit potential partners and hold preliminary discussions. Priority subject areas vary by country, but include the environment, climate change, biotechnology, arts and literature, and economic sciences.
Generally exploratory discussions will involve a partnership at multiple levels, for example research, teaching, and student exchange. Applications for this scheme are open now and will close in February 2009, but be aware that all travel must take place before the end of March 2009 so if you are interested it is a good idea to send off a proposal as early as possible.
I need details for major research projects in Fuzzy Logic Controllers, microcontroller based instrumentation systems, and embedded systems for real-time operating systems which are emerging areas in moderm control engineering. These would be intwerdiscuiplinary, multi-country advanced research projects not only to train the undergraduate students in these emerging technologies but also produce advanced manpower in terms of successful graduate students.Such projects need large amount of funding and longer duration. Could you please send me additional details in this regard so that we could be ready when Calls are announced ? Thanking you, Sincerely yours, Professor Ashok Kulkarni