The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was apprised of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bengaluru and the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) and the GRANTECAN, S.A. (GTC), Spain to develop scientific and technical collaborations in astronomy field.
The activities to be carried out under this MoU will lead to (i) New scientific results; (ii) New technologies; (iii) Capacity building through increased scientific interaction and training; (iv) Joint scientific projects, etc.
The joint research projects, training programmes, conferences, seminars, etc., under the MoU, will be open to all qualified scientists, students, and technologists and will be supported solely on the basis of scientific merit and experience. The development of segmented telescope technologies as well as the development of robotic telescopes and other future potential specific collaborations.