The University of Melbourne and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have joined hands for the first-ever joint PhD programme in Science and Technology which may be extended to Medical PhD programmes in near future. The programme is part of the Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA) a joint initiative consisting of established researchers and joint PhD candidates from the University of Melbourne and a group of India’s top research institutions, engaging in projects that address key issues in science and technology.

Under this partnership, IISc and the University of Melbourne will support up to 10 joint PhD candidates each year for the next five years. Students enrolled in the programme can spend at least 12 and up to 24 months in each institution, and upon successful completion of their PhD, graduate with one joint testamur. Graduate researchers must satisfy the entry requirements for PhD at both the Indian Institute of Science and The University of Melbourne.

The programme intends to further strengthen the strong research collaborations between the two institutions, such as the work of Professor Udaya Parampalli at the University of Melbourne and Associate Professor Sudhan Majhi from IISc. Together, they have established a Coding, Sensing and Communications (CSC) research network involving IISc, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Madras and Kharagpur, India. 

The aim of the network, which also has links to the US, Europe and Singapore, is to advance research in innovative applications in cyber security and communications. Uniquely, they use researchers with fundamental skills in information theory, coding and signal processing. 

The network is working to drive the growth of distributed storage for big data, medical security, agricultural sensing, and disaster management.