Joint venture to power Indian villages bags Times Higher Education award

The Strategic University Network to Revolutionise Indian Solar Energy (SUNRISE), an Indo-UK multi-institutional programme on solar energy with an aim to empower and provide power accessibility to rural India, has bagged the Times Higher Education (THE) award this year for ‘international collaboration’.

SUNRISE researchers are developing solar-powered applications so people in rural India may enjoy power supply round the clock. The joint venture, funded by the UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund, is working on developing next-generation solar cells and battery systems suitable for India’s rural setup.

The Indian team of the venture includes researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research, Pune; the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru; the Indian Institute of Technology — in Bombay, Delhi and Kanpur; the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad and the CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Delhi.