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PIONEERING A NEW FUTURE 127
INTERNATIONAL ENGAGEMENTS SERB’s programmes, such as Visiting Advanced Joint Research (SERB-VAJRA), and SERB International Research Experience (SERB-SIRE) aim to foster innovative research with an international outlook.
Global Research Council (GRC) is a virtual organization comprising heads of science and engineering research- funding agencies across the world. The council aims to formulate policies pertaining to research funding and acts as a forum for multilateral research collaborations across funding agencies. India is a founding member of GRC and is represented by SERB.
SERB also hosted the 5th annual meeting of the GRC in 2016. More than 120 delegates including 44 heads of research councils and expert policy makers attended the meeting.
The hosting of the Annual Meeting of
the GRC
accentuated
India’s rise
as a global
scientific
power.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan at a discussion on ‘Equality and Status of Women in Research’ at the Annual Meeting of Global Research Meeting 2016
Interdisciplinary Center for Cyber Security and Cyber Defense of Critical Infrastructures (also known as ‘C3i Centre’) at the Indian Institute
of Technology, Kanpur (https://security.cse. iitk.ac.in/) is one such example. C3i Centre undertakes vulnerability assessment and penetration testing in a controlled environment and enhances the resilience and security of critical infrastructures.
Indigenous Radar to Track Monsoon Winds:
SERB has launched the first operational
and indigenously developed Stratosphere- Troposphere (ST) radar that is successfully functioning and being operated at 205 MHz frequency, which is stationed at Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT). Besides being the first radar in the world operating at this frequency, it is also the first wind profiler radar in the near equatorial site, set up primarily to study the characteristics of Indian summer monsoon right at its gateway
in the region at Cochin. This radar provides a cost-effective and high-precision technology
data of atmosphere starting from 315m and well up to 20 km in all weather conditions. Besides looking into the dynamics of Indian monsoon and other aspects of Tropical Meteorology, it would be utilized for the study of other atmospheric processes in the region. The other two ST radars funded by SERB at Nainital and Kolkata are in their final stages of completion.
Rising to Research Challenges: Addressing COVID-19: SERB has announced research support for COVID-19 specific projects, in the following areas:
• Antiviral nanomaterials and bio-nano antiviral systems
• Affordable, portable rapid diagnostic kits /tools. • Computational identification and validation of
COVID-19 molecular targets.
• Drug repurposing against key COVID-19 targets. • In-vitro / clinical dose testing of nutritional
supplements for immunity
• Mathematical modelling of COVID-19
infection spread; forecasting, inferences, and epidemiological models. •