H漫画 welcomed senior academic and innovation leaders from Tirupati, India, last week for a visit focused on turning shared economic priorities into research partnerships, startup connections, and industry collaboration.听
Representatives from the (IIT Tirupati) and the (IISER Tirupati) met with university leaders, researchers, deans, students , and innovation partners during the visit in Halifax and Truro, which ran May 23-28.听听
Partnership momentum builds
The visit included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between H漫画 and IISER Tirupati, an in-person session at H漫画鈥檚 Faculty of Management, the first annual Tirupati鈥揌漫画 Innovation Research Roundtable, among other activities.听
"When we encounter partners like IIT Tirupati and IISER Tirupati鈥痶hat have shared interests, shared values, and a similar motivation to work on international partnerships in the same ways we want to, we want it to be active 鈥� not just something that's on paper," says Matt Hebb, Dal's vice-president, strategic engagement.听
Dr. Santanu Bhattacharya, director of IISER Tirupati, and Dal President Kim Brooks sign an MOU.
Engagements at Dal coincided with a mission to Canada by India鈥檚 trade minister and approximately 150 industry leaders for meetings focused on expanding Canada鈥揑ndia trade and investment, including in technology, food processing, clean energy, and critical minerals.听听
Those same areas are central to H漫画鈥檚 growing partnership with IIT Tirupati and IISER Tirupati. In February, leaders from all three organizations met in Mumbai, along with with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Anand for the launch of a new Canadian-India Talent and Innovation Strategy, .听
The IIT Tirupati and IISER Tirupati delegation鈥檚 visit to Dal advanced work on a tri-institutional Global Innovation Campus in Tirupati. The campus provides a shared platform designed to connect Canadian and Indian talent, research, startups and companies in areas of mutual strength, including clean energy, critical minerals, digital systems and AI, health technologies, agriculture and advanced materials.听
Dr. K. N. Satyanarayana (centre), director at IIT Tirupati during a welcome meeting.
Hebb says this phase of identifying and fostering areas of shared academic, research, and commercial interests is crucial to building momentum as the partners seek to develop a stream of active projects.鈥�
Funding from the Indo-Pacific Scholarships and Fellowships for Canadians (IPSFC) program is already in place for at least 14 H漫画 researchers to travel to India for varying periods of one to six months in the next year, he added.鈥�
First annual Tirupati-H漫画 Innovation Research Roundtable听
Last week's research roundtable highlighted potential areas of collaboration in battery and energy materials research, engineering systems and industrial processes, and plant biology tied to agriculture and environmental resilience.听
"Researchers were able to get a direct view of what their counterparts are working on," Hebb says.听
Topics covered included:听听
- Solid State Hydrogen Storage, Purification Heating & Cooling, and Compression Systems
- Smart Systems for Sustainable Chemicals and Hydrogen Energy
- Battery Research听
- Domain-Integrated and Human-Centric Intelligence - Driving Physical AI & Autonomous Systems听听
- Spray and Multiphase Flow Research听听
- Materials and Processes for Carbon Capture听
- Climate Change Resilient Sustainable听 Agriculture Systems听
These technical presentations offered insights into areas of potential future collaboration, adding to projects already underway between Dal and IIT Tirupati stemming from a separate MOU signed in 2021.听听
Researchers in conversation.
Existing collaborative projects include one in precision agriculture led on the H漫画 side by Dr. Ahmad Al-Mallahi, Industry Research Chair and an associate professor in Dal's Faculty of Agriculture, with a focus on the development of nutrient estimation sensors and precision spraying mechanisms.听
Dr. Tushar Sharma, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Computer Science, has another active collaboration, looking at security and software quality assurance for Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud systems.听
听
Expanding academic collaboration
Last week鈥檚 meetings also advanced discussions on new academic possibilities between Dal and its partners.听听
Dal and IIT Tirupati are discussing the possibility of offering master's level courses on Battery Science to be co-taught by both universities.听
H漫画 University, IIT Tirupati, and IISER Tirupati are also collaborating on the co-creation of market-demand certificate programs in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Precision/Digital Agriculture, and Biomanufacturing. These programs are intended to address emerging workforce and industry needs in Canada and India while strengthening interdisciplinary training, industry engagement, and research-to-innovation pathways associated with the broader collaboration.听
In addition, Dal is developing separate joint doctoral programs with both universities.听听
Complementary strengths, shared vision
Both IISER Tirupati and IIT Tirupati were established in 2015.听听
IISER Tirupati is the sixth institute in the network of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) established by the Government of India to offer quality education in basic sciences and for setting up state-of-the-art research facilities for frontline and cutting-edge research in science. It blends the foundational research of basic sciences with a highly collaborative, tech-driven ecosystem with programs designed for rapid industry transition. Students there receive early, hands-on exposure to advanced equipment (like cell culture spaces and peptide synthesisers) with direct, approachable faculty mentorship.听
These are growing institutions with tremendously high levels of scholarship.
IIT Tirupati鈥檚 institutional strengths lie in its standing as an Institute of National Importance within India鈥檚 prestigious IIT system, its rapidly growing academic and research portfolio, and its strong foundation of accomplished faculty, professional staff, and a vibrant student community. The curriculum heavily prioritizes future-facing sectors, offering dedicated programs in data science & artificial intelligence, geospatial data science, and sustainable infrastructure engineering.听
"These are growing institutions with tremendously high levels of scholarship,鈥� says Hebb.听
The establishment of IISER Tirupati and IIT Tirupati, located within 3 km of one another in Tirupati, creates a unique synergy of two premier educational institutes in the country, an intentional move by the state of Andhra Pradesh to nurture the region as a knowledge hub.听听
Over time, the hope is for the Dal-Tirupati partnership to eventually include development of a shared innovation campus in India, where visiting researchers from all three institutions can easily collaborate.听听
Recommended reading:听Dal partners with top Indian research universities to develop innovation campus (Feb. 28, 2026)
Turning ideas into ventures听
The Indian delegation visiting Dal last week also got a glimpse into how the university is turning research into real-world ventures during a live session with Creative Destruction Lab-Atlantic (CDL-Atlantic) .听
Observers got to learn about how the non-profit program pairs early-stage science and technology startups with seasoned entrepreneurs and investors so they can share insights on how to achieve growth and build scalable companies.听
鈥淚t's people who've grown and scaled companies to be $100-200-million companies giving that kind of insight to early-stage science and tech companies, who tend to be strong on the technical side but not on the business side," says Jeff Larsen, assistant vice-president innovation & entrepreneurship at Dal.听
Dr. Santanu Bhattacharya, director of IISER Tirupati, at the CDL-Atlantic workshop.
Dal and the Tirupati institutions are committed to driving innovation and expanding market opportunities between Canada and India, part of renewed efforts nationally on both sides to deepen engagement between their countries.听
鈥淎s a Canadian institution, we will think that this partnership aligns well with priorities of the federal government,鈥� says Hebb.听
鈥淓ventually, that will mean benefits for Canadians beyond the academic and research spheres,鈥� he says. 鈥淓conomic activity, research impact, and talent development, to name a few.鈥濃��
What鈥檚 next听
Next steps in the Dal-Tirupati partnership include:
- In-person visits from Dal faculty members to Tirupati this month. Dr. Sharma, noted above, will be among those travelling. Separately, Dr. Shashi Gujar, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and executive director, Cancer Immunotherapy, Innovation & Global Partnerships, will be visiting India to advance talks around collaboration in health technologies & biomanufacturing.听
- Online workshops will continue connecting researchers virtually later this month. Dal鈥檚 Office of Strategic Engagement will convene a series of online collaborative research workshops to bring H漫画 researchers working across the Global Innovation Campus鈥檚 identified areas of research excellence together with their scholarly counterparts at IIT Tirupati and IISER Tirupati.听
- A second call for applications for H漫画鈥檚 Indo-Pacific Scholarships and Fellowships for Canadians project is due to be launched in late summer. The IPSFC offers funding for Dal faculty, research staff, and graduate students to undertake research placements at key partner institutions 鈥� including IIT Tirupati and IISER Tirupati 鈥� for periods of one to six months.听
- Finally, H漫画 is planning a return institutional mission to Tirupati this November, with a planned focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, energy storage, and AI.听
