IIT Bombay hosted NITI Aayog's Sectoral Consultative Meeting on Promoting University-Industry-Government (UIG) Collaboration in Chemical Sector on 2nd June 2026

The meeting started with welcome remarks by Prof. Shrikrishna V. Kulkarni, Dean (Research and Development), IIT Bombay, who highlighted the institute's extensive research and industry engagement initiatives. Prof. Madhu Vinjamur and Prof. Rahul Nabar, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay presented the department's research strengths and collaborative efforts with industry. Senior management of chemical sector particularly from petrochemicals, cosmetics, catalysts, precious metals, industrial chemicals, agrochemicals, adhesives and a few other domains were represented in the meeting. 

Setting the context for the deliberations, Prof. Vivek Kumar Singh, Senior Advisor (Science & Technology), NITI Aayog, emphasized the importance of strengthening UIG partnerships to accelerate innovation and research translation. The roundtable discussion was moderated by Dr. Deeksha Gupta, Director, Global Strategy for Society Programs, American Chemical Society, and brought together distinguished participants to discuss Industry–Academia Mobility, Shared Research & Facilities, Technology/Product co-development, and Industry perspectives on the Research, Development and Innovation Framework (RDIF). 

The discussions brought out several important challenges and opportunities. Some of suggestions emerged out of discussion includes alignment of academic research with industry-relevant, focus on higher-TRL research rather than relying predominantly on publication-based metrics, streamline NDA and IP processes to reduce delays in collaboration, and creation of jointly funded pilot and scale-up facilities by government and industry to accelerate the translation of promising technologies from the laboratory to commercial reality etc. 

The meeting brought together stakeholders from academia, industry, and government to explore pathways for strengthening research translation, innovation partnerships, and technology commercialization in the chemical sector. Key enablers and Government of India initiatives for promoting UIG were discussed and identified for further action by various stakeholders.