University of Ulster scientist Professor Gerard Parr has been selected to take part in a major conference in New Delhi next month aimed at boosting technology business between the UK and India, which is the world’s second fasting growing economy.

The international links he is developing are likely to pave the way for joint initiatives between the university and Indian institutes and companies.

Professor Parr, who holds the Chair in Telecommunications Engineering at the University’s Coleraine campus, was nominated by the EPSRC, Britain’s premier engineering research body, to take part in a major information and computer technology conference organised by the British High Commission in the Indian capital.

The conference is a key element in the High Commission’s Science and Technology programme, which has been devised to identify and facilitate bilateral collaboration between Indian and British researchers in defined fields. Telecommunications is one of the prominent sectors.

His nomination by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will involve him attending and delivering a series of technology lectures.

“I am encouraged by this prestigious nomination which is made all the more significant by the fact that it came from the EPSRC,” he said.

“This initiative by the British High Commission in India will feed directly into our own expansion plans for ICT at our Coleraine campus, in terms of developing further international collaborations on our PhD and MSc portfolio on wireless communications research and intelligent ‘zero touch’ network management.

“I hope to develop a number of collaborations and I have been asked to advise the EPSRC and the British High Commission on the development of funding policies to take priority areas forward over the next two to three years.

The ESPRC’s nomination reflects Professor Parr’s reputation for international quality research in fixed and wireless communications protocols and more recently his research into proactive network management.

The Indian Communications and IT Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, and Digby Jones, Director General of the Confederation of British Industry, will open the conference.Participants will be business people, senior UK and Indian government officials and members of the research community from India's top institutions.

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Press Office, Department of Communication and Development
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