Pune city will be soon receiving two significant clusters to boost research in biotechnology and improve interface between industries and institutions in the city, The New Indian Express reports.

Of the two, one will be a knowledge cluster facilitating collaborations between research institutions and industries and the other will develop the latest technology to address common issues. The Chandigarh Region Innovation and Knowledge Cluster is one such knowledge cluster.

Officials from the National Center of Cell Science (NCCS), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) and selected defence establishments in the city attended a meeting on the issue.

The Director of Pune’s IISER, Jayant Udgaonkar, said, “We held interactions with officials from Punjab University, who had worked on setting up the Chandigarh cluster. This cluster will pool resources and people… some seed funding will be provided by government… Pune has the advantage of being home to both industries and academics. This cluster is currently being designed.

He added that Pune has become an automobile and IT hub in the last 10 years. The city offers various opportunities for ample application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data sciences. Various collaborations in the field will be enabled due to the setting up of the clusters.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), providing a significant push to the biotechnology, has awarded an attractive grant to set up the Biotechnology Cluster in Pune, which will the spearheaded NCCS and IISER, Pune.

“Soon, industries, SPPU and other centres on the campus will be coming together, and we are hopeful of great interactions between researchers in the field of biology,” Udgaonkar adds.