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India and the European Union are expanding technological and research cooperation to jointly fight the Covid-19 virus focussing on early action in the area of containment and development of new medicines and vaccines.
“Everyone is calling for connections, international coordination and strengthening of cooperation....If we have India and the EU on the same boat that is a very large community,” said Tania Friederichs, Head of Section, Research and Innovation, Delegation of the EU to India, at webinar on EU actions to combat Covid-19 on Tuesday.
India is supporting the EU in its initiative to promote sharing of scientific data through the platforms of Open Access and Open Science.
“Sharing of data greatly accelerates R&D and improves quality of research for an effective response to Covid-19. This would help scientists understand the problem better and develop effective treatment and vaccines,” pointed out Michael Arentoft, Senior Policy Officer, Open Science, DG Research and Innovation, EC.
One of the greatest action on Open Science was a decision taken by more than 40 leading scientific publishers to make their data on Covid-19 accessible in public repositories, said Arentoft.
“This followed strong requests from EC and various governments, including India, to enhance ability of researchers not only to access but to reuse the articles...”, he added.
Several Indian companies are now using the Open Science database to work on Covid-19 vaccines.
The Spanish government is working with the Department of Bio-technology in India and the Department of Science and Technology on initiatives for developing temperature monitoring systems and masks, said Adrian Gutierrez, Counsellor for Science & Technology, Embassy of Spain, New Delhi.
Spain is also sharing with India, the technology for 3-D printing of medical supplies, masks and respirators, in case there is a shortage, he added.
“We have seen a very coordinated and impressive effort by India in mobilising its R&D system to combat Covid-19 and taking policy decisions,” said Jakob Williams, Counsellor for Science, Innovation and Higher Education, Embassy of Denmark, New Delhi.
“India is important on the global scale. If we want to see a successful rebound of the global economy, India will have to be part of the solution we are creating. Both at the EU level and the Danish level we will need to engage more closely with India,” Williams said.
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