(11.12.19) If you're interested in top research in India, don't just stop in Delhi and Bangalore. Among the many other great places, you may want to take a closer look at Chennai with its two elite universities -- IIT Madras and Anna University -- and its many non-university research institutes.

In order to get to know the higher education and research institutions in Chennai and to establish new collaborative projects, the science team of the EU Delegation to India visited the South Indian city together with many research counsellors of the member states' embassies. Matthias Kiesselbach of DFG India Office joined the group. Apart from meeting scientists in South India, his interest was to promote the many existing and planned funding programmes at top institutes in Chennai.

Besides IIT Madras and Anna University (two universities which now carry the prestigious "Institute of Eminence" label and will receive 1000 cr Rupees in extra government funding over the next few years) the list of visited institutes included the Institute of Mathematical Research which currently houses a large ERC project as well as the CSIR - Structural Engineering Centre.

For DFG, Chennai is, among other things, a place with significant cooperation potential. "Especially in view of our planned funding programmes for larger Indo-German coordinated projects, Chennai is a highly interesting place. Several institutes potentially have the critical mass to form Indian legs of Research Training Groups or Research Units", Matthias Kiesselbach, Director of DFG's office in New Delhi, says. "Also, in many instances, Indo-German cooperation has long tradition in Chennai. In all of the institutions we visited, reseachers told us of their many ties with German colleagues!"

Indian and German researchers interested in cooperating with each other are always welcome at DFG India Office with its offer of information and practical help in establishing research collaborations.