EU and India increase co-operation in social sciences and humanities

The EU and India have announced a new platform to encourage greater collaboration in social sciences and humanities (SSH).

It is hoped that the new ‘EU-India Social Sciences and Humanities Platform’ (EqUIP) will unite international research communities and encourage European and Indian researchers to engage, network and co-operate in SSH. The project will receive €1.5m in funding from the European Commission and will bring together 12 EU research funding organisations with key partners in India.

Speaking about the new platform, EU Ambassador to India Joao Cravinho said: “This cross-cutting discipline is crucial for enhancing the socioeconomic impact of research and for evidence-based policy making.

“Until now, research co-operation between Europe and India relied mainly on individual-level collaboration among researchers or bilateral links between universities and research organisations. It is now time to take this co-operation to the next level in order to strengthen co-ordination and synergies between European and Indian researchers on a multilateral and international level.”

EqUIP is being led by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council, the Indian Council of Social Science Research, Research Councils UK and EURAXESS Links India.