6th Meeting of the Bulgaria-India Joint Committee for Science and Technology (Sofia, 14 May 2009)

The 6th Meeting of the Bulgaria-India Joint Committee for Science and Technology was held in Sofia on 14 May 2009. The Meeting was co-chaired by Dr. Vania Dobreva, Deputy Minister of Education and Science of Bulgaria, and Dr. T. Ramasami, Secretary, Department of S&T, Government of India.

During the plenary session Bulgaria and India underlined that the cooperation in the field of science and technology is of priority importance for the two countries. Both sides noted that the scientific and technical partnership between Bulgaria and India was developing in areas such as electronics and nuclear and laser physics, chemistry, genetics, agricultural sciences and biotechnology, earth sciences, metal sciences, medical sciences, etc. They expressed their appreciation of the cooperation in the area of space research, renewable sources of energy and information technologies.

It was noted that the membership of Bulgaria in the EU, as well as the strategic partnership between the EU and India, will provide new opportunities for the scientists of both countries to further develop their partnership in the field of S&T.

During the session 13 new joint research projects were approved for implementation, 19 ongoing projects were recommended for continuation and 3 ongoing projects were recommended for extension. They are in the field of electronics and nuclear and laser physics, chemistry, genetics, agricultural sciences and biotechnology, earth sciences, metal sciences, space research, renewable sources of energy and IT.

A Protocol of the 6th Meeting of the Bulgarian-Indian Joint Committee for Science and Technology was signed.

After the session the heads of the two delegations Dr. Vania Dobreva and Dr. T. Ramasami signed a Programme of Cooperation in Science and Technology between the Government of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Government of the Republic of India for the period 2008-2010.