PTI, Guwhati : Investments under United Kingdom-India Research and Innovation partnerships in eastern and northeastern states was expected to cross over four hundred million pounds by 2021, a release issued by the British Deputy High Commission said.

The investments in 2008 was almost one million but it was expected to cross 400 million pound by 2021 with tech-focused investments on issues of global importance including agriculture, clean energy, global health and the environment, it said.

In Assam, academic research collaborations are on between IIT Guwahati, Dibrugarh University and Tezpur University and their UK counterparts.

IIT Guwahati and University of Cambridge are collaborating on material science research (Peptide Based Semiconducting Materials for Organic-electronic devices).

Tezpur University is collaborating with University of Essex on health research, with Nottingham University on chemical sciences, and with University of Southampton on Advanced material including nanotechnology.

Joint research is undertaken between IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bhubaneshwar, NIT Rourkela, Jadavpur University, Bengal Engineering and Science University Shibpur, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, Indian Institution of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, Calcutta University, and their UK counterparts, the release said.

The science and research partnerships between the UK and Indian institutions in these three states are on advance material, nanotechnology, biomedical sciences, sensor technology (water quality), data science, material science (human health), energy, etc.

In addition, research partnerships on Stem Cell Research and Biotechnology, Advanced Material Telecommunication system, Geological Sciences and Sensor research/Solar Energy are also at the forefront, the release added.