The “FAIR Industry Meet” was held at Bose Institute, Kolkata during April 12-13, 2023. The goal of this meeting was to appraise the Indian industries regarding the opportunities as well as challenges in the various upcoming International scientific facilities, especially the Mega Science projects where India is playing a crucial part in building the facilities and encourage them to participate in these ventures.
The event was inaugurated by Prof. (Dr.) Uday Bandyopadhyay, Director, Bose Institute and Mr. Manfred Auster, the Hon. Consul-General, Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Kolkata was present as the Chief Guest. Among others present were Dr. Sumit Som, Director, VECC and chief patron for Indo-FAIR Project, Dr. David Urner, Head, In-Kind Office & Procurement, FAIR GmbH and Mr. Gaurav Aggarwal, Scientist from International Cooperation Division of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.
During the inauguration, Prof. Bandyopadhyay highlighted the genesis of India’s participation in the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), an upcoming multipurpose particle accelerator coming up in Darmstadt, Germany where about 3000 scientists from over 50 countries in the world are working together for the development of this facility. He also mentioned that this is the first time India is participating from the beginning in an International accelerator facility. India is the only non-european founding member of this endeavour, Germany, Finland, France, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia being some of the other countries. Prof. Bandyopadhyay informed the audience that the contribution from India is the second largest next only to Germany. The Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India have come together to jointly fund this project.
“The participation of Indian industries in these large accelerator facilities will not only bring opportunities to the Indian industries to become more competitive in the global market, this will also equip them to contribute to the in-house facilities existing and upcoming in the country” – commented Dr. Som.
The chief guest of the program, Mr. Manfred Auster expressed his happiness at being part of this event and underlined the engagement of Germany as the host country of the large project of global dimension where India is the only non-European partner. He opined that this tells not only about the quality of research carried out by the Indian academic community but also about the competence of Indian industries.
Mr. Gaurav Aggarwal, representing Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, highlighted the importance of this industry meet in connection with India’s participation in a number of national and international mega science projects which are generally of long term in nature where the initial ten to fifteen years is spent in the construction phase. He mentioned the involvement of sophisticated technologies and strict technical specifications to be met by the industries to participate and compete with their global counterparts.
Sixteen companies from different industry sectors relevant to the development and construction of a large size particle accelerator facility such as ultra high vacuum, cryogenics, application specific integrated chip (ASIC) and sensor, printed circuit board manufacturing, heavy engineering, electrical and electronics attended the meeting. Representatives from the companies made presentations on their current product range, clientele, facilities and capabilities. Representatives from FAIR GmbH discussed the direct participation of Indian Industries in the global tenders and from FAIR and informed about the procedure to participate in the tendering procedure.
On the second day a panel discussion was organized with several panelists including Mrs. Sabina Pandey, Regional Director of Indo-German Chamber of Commerce on the opportunities and challenges for the Indian industries participating not only in FAIR but also other International mega science projects where India is playing crucial role as a partner. The panelists discussed the necessity of the participation of Indian industries in the developments as these facilities contribute to technological advancement. In response to the comments from the audience, panelists also discussed the difficulties that Industries may face and the possible solutions. Industries emphasized on the need for more detailed information and specific help for them to be able to participate and win global bids.
Mr. David Urner emphasized the importance for the Indian companies to get registered in the FAIR and European Union tender database to receive the information on the business opportunities in time. The Indo-German Chamber of Commerce also promised to act as a bridge between the scientific community and the industries for this purpose.
