The UK and India have agreed to explore a partnership between Russell Group universities and India’s Technology Innovation Hubs, according to the joint statement of the 8th UK-India Science and Innovation Council, published by the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade on 12 October 2026. The council met in New Delhi.

It was co-chaired by Dr Jitendra Singh, India’s Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, and Jonathan Reynolds MP, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The two ministers also agreed to explore a partnership with India’s Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) to link research and technology translation with investment and scale-up, and agreed to raise the council’s status to match what they called their increased ambition. The statement does not say what the higher status involves.

Our objective is to connect the UK and India’s research systems more closely and turn more joint research into technologies, products and businesses.

Joint statement of Dr Jitendra Singh, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, and Jonathan Reynolds MP, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade

What was agreed

The statement says UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the Government of India have jointly invested more than £450 million since 2008, supporting over 290 projects and 1,665 publications, and that joint publications have increased by 238% since 2013 and are cited 120% above the global average.

Alongside the two partnerships to be explored, the ministers:

  • launched a UK-India Technology Translation Partnership with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, connecting UK Catapults with India’s Science and Technology Clusters;
  • announced an InnoXchange Programme connecting start-ups, incubators and accelerators;
  • welcomed a Thematic Analysis for a UK-India Research and Innovation Corridor, which identified seven shared themes and five priority opportunities;
  • welcomed the Phase 2 Implementation Agreement for the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source partnership, under which India’s Department of Science and Technology will invest a further £3 million over five years to expand access for Indian researchers and support early-career researchers.

Under the Technology Security Initiative, they also welcomed a Genomic Centre of Excellence between Oxford Nanopore Technologies India and India’s Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, and a biomanufacturing partnership between the UK’s Centre for Process Innovation and India’s Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council.

What is not yet decided

Both university-facing items are commitments to explore, not agreements. The statement does not name participating universities or hubs, and sets out no funding, governance or timetable for either the Russell Group or the ANRF partnership. It does not list the corridor analysis’s seven themes or five opportunities. Apart from India’s £3 million for ISIS, no new money is attached to the measures. Officials and delivery partners were tasked with taking the initiatives forward before the next council, for which no date was given.

The council met during a UK trade mission to India led by Reynolds. The department’s release on the mission said the University of Liverpool’s campus in Bengaluru had opened that week.

What it means

TED analysis:

  • For UK research-intensive universities: a Russell Group channel to India’s Technology Innovation Hubs would give members a government-backed route into India’s applied research network. Universities outside the Russell Group are not mentioned and would need to look to the ANRF track or the translation partnership.
  • For Indian institutions and funders: a partnership with ANRF focused on translation and scale-up would sit alongside UKRI’s existing joint funding with the Government of India. Its scale will depend on money that has not yet been announced.
  • For investors and technology transfer suppliers: the statement’s emphasis on Catapults, start-ups, incubators and scale-up points to demand for commercialisation services around joint research rather than for teaching partnerships.