SPARC — Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration

It was launched in October, 2018 and aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian institutions and the best institutions in the world from 28 selected nations to jointly solve problems of national and international relevance in the first phase.

• It was launched by MoHRD and IIT Kharagpur is the national coordinating institute responsible for overall execution of SPARC.
• A set of 5 thrust areas (Fundamental Research, Emergent Areas of Impact, Convergence, Action-Oriented Research and Innovation-Driven) and sub-theme areas in each thrust area have been identified for collaboration under SPARC based on emergent relevance and importance for the nation.
• A total of 394 projects have been approved till date (January, 2019) from various countries.