The University of Oulu is building industry-academia collaboration for hydrogen with India
In the context of India´s national Green Hydrogen mission, the University of Oulu is at the forefront of developing industry-academia collaborations in India, including the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Hydrogen (approval pending by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) with Amity University, India, and other consortia members. A delegation from the University of Oulu, including Prof. Marko Huttula, Prof. Mahesh Somani, Assoc. Prof. Matti Silveri, Assoc. Prof. Varsha Srivastava, and Katja Stephenson, Head of International Affairs, visited Amity University, Noida, under the Amity Hydrogen Mission. The other key partners in India include, for example, IIT Madras and IIT Delhi, both of which the delegation also visited during the week.
“As part of the university's new strategy, we aim to systematically strengthen the university’s global engagement and catalyse high-quality, strategic education and research collaborations with international partners. These visits are crucial part for relationship building and driving forward concrete action plans and impactful outcomes”, says Katja Stephenson, Head of International Affairs, University of Oulu.
University of Oulu´s continuous research collaboration with Amity University will be strengthened with a double doctoral degree programme
The University of Oulu and Amity University are now creating a double doctoral degree programme together that will strengthen the collaboration partnership further. Professor Marko Huttula, leader of H2FUTURE programme, is pleased with the trip and steps the partner universities are taking together.
“We have continuous research collaboration with Amity University, writing and publishing research papers together. Amity University conducts extensive hydrogen research, including water purification that simultaneously produces hydrogen catalytically without external energy. They have a hydrogen car on campus and several research projects, on the topics of surface science and catalysis research.”
Just a while ago, one of H2Future postdoctoral hydrogen researchers went to Amity University as a postdoctoral fellow. In 2024, to advance research mobility in between the two countries University of Oulu launched Finland-India exchange programme to award fundings for research mobility in 2024-2026.
“There are also a lot of possibilities for other fields to collaborate with India. For example, we are advancing multidisciplinary research project at the University of Oulu; Fair and justified technology transition for clean future thru developed technologies, which includes clean water, energy, digitalization and materials for everyone”, says Huttula.
EU and India are strengthening their collaboration on semiconductors ecosystem, its supply chain and innovation
During the last 12 months University of Oulu has laid the foundations for a more focussed approach to institutional partnership building in select countries and institutions, India being one of these.
EU's ambition is also to strengthen cooperation with India, and the goals of hydrogen research at the University of Oulu are very much aligned with that. Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the European Union and India on working arrangements on semiconductors ecosystem, its supply chain and innovation under the framework of EU-India Trade and Technology Council (TTC) in 2023. At Hydrogen Europe and the Green Hydrogen Association (GH2 India) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration and mutual support, strengthening knowledge exchange to promote the advancement of the hydrogen sector across Europe and India.