India and Australia agreed to expand and realign their science and technology partnership towards mission-oriented collaboration in critical and emerging technologies following talks between the two ministers in New Delhi. The ministers reviewed the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, which completes two decades in 2026, and welcomed the finalisation of five joint research projects under Round-16 of the programme. The meeting was framed around accelerating applied research to support clean energy transitions and supply chain resilience.

The five projects span critical minerals processing, quantum technologies, advanced manufacturing, climate-resilient agriculture and cellular immunotherapy, reflecting alignment with shared priorities for sustainable development. Three projects supported by India’s Department of Science and Technology focus on high-value electronic waste recycling through photovoltaic panel reuse, green chemistry for recovery of critical minerals from batteries and adversarial resilience in quantum machine learning systems. Two projects supported by the Department of Biotechnology will advance engineering of thermotolerant crops and cellular immunotherapy solutions for viral infections in immunocompromised patients.

The Indian minister emphasised a mission-mode approach across advanced materials, quantum technologies, AI-enabled research and critical minerals while highlighting a bioeconomy policy to position India as a competitive bio-economy hub. Both sides underlined the importance of embedding industry participation and ensuring translation of research into scalable and industry-linked solutions. They agreed to prioritise larger, impact-driven and multi-institutional projects aligned with national priorities.

The AISRF, launched in 2006, has supported more than 370 collaborative activities including joint research projects, fellowships and workshops and the partners noted increased joint publications and technology demonstrators. India’s ministries have collectively supported projects worth Rs 1,400 million (mn) since inception and Australia committed AUD 90 mn, and both sides agreed to deepen researcher mobility through joint doctoral and postdoctoral programmes and industry-linked fellowships. Discussions also covered expanded cooperation in space applications for climate resilience, disaster management and maritime use to ensure the partnership advances co-development and industry-integrated innovation in the Indo-Pacific.