The Australian prime minister, Mr Tony Abbott is set to visit India on September 4, 2014.

Ahead of the visit, the Australian High Commissioner in New Delhi, Mr Patrick Suckling called on Dr Jitendra Singh, Union minister of state for science and technology, to discuss different issues likely to come up during the visit.

Dr Jitendr Singh told the high commissioner, he was glad that some major announcements are scheduled during the Australian Prime Minister's visit which include the Australian Government's decision to extend the "Australia-India Strategic Research Fund" (AISRF) for four years from 2015-16 primarily for work in the field of Biotechnology as also Science and Technology.

Expressing satisfaction, the science and technology minister said that this initiative will underline Australia's commitment to bilateral partnership between the two countries and will further strengthen to grow scientific and innovation collaboration between the two nations. This may further pave the way for participation in several other joint projects as well, he added.

Dr Singh informed that so far, 46 joint projects and 9 bilateral workshops covering areas of aquaculture, biofuels, biomedical devises, bioremediation, transgenic crops, vaccines, stem cell research etc., have been jointly supported by the two countries.

Dr Jitendra Singh disclosed that the researchers from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and the Australian National Trauma Research Institute are already working together under the "Australia-India Trauma Systems Collaboration Program" and in this connection, the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Tony Abbot is also scheduled to visit the Truama Centre at AIIMS, New Delhi during his New Delhi visit next week.