The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and University College London (UCL) have launched a new phase of their strategic partnership to expand innovative work together in healthcare.

The two institutions have signed a ‘Letter of Intent’ to facilitate closer collaboration with IISc’s forthcoming Postgraduate Medical School across research, education, innovation and commercialisation.

The letter will underpin a new and exciting phase for UCL and IISc’s partnership as the universities seek to co-create significant new research capability together in areas across basic and clinical sciences, applied engineering and clinical practice.

UCL and IISc will create a joint working group to explore several potential collaborative initiatives across future-focused interdisciplinary areas such as digital health, quantum tech, artificial intelligence (AI) and medicine.

The partners hope that the framework will lead to new programmes, leveraged together through external funding, such as collaborative PhDs, sharing health systems best practices, faculty exchange and research fellowships.

This latest development strengthens UCL’s longstanding partnership with IISc, consolidated through a recent joint funding scheme that has supported academics from both institutions to collaborate in the fields of equitable urban design, liver tissue engineering and quantum technologies.