UTTHAN Pathways: Building Regional Research Partnerships

Researchers at regional universities in Australia and India’s Tier 2 and 3 institutions share challenges and opportunities for strengthening research capacity, advancing internationalisation, and driving regional development through place-based innovation. This project provides a formal pathway for collaboration between them for the first time, through three connected streams aligned with Mission UTTHAN – India’s national agenda for building research and innovation capacity outside Tier 1 cities. The project is led by the Australia India Institute in partnership with the Regional Universities Network, Section Infin8 Foundation and the Gulbali Institute, with funding from the Australian Government Department of Education.

Stream One: UTTHAN Pathways Accelerator

A virtual program of six sessions connecting researchers and institutional leaders from Australian regional universities and Indian Tier 2 and 3 higher education institutions.

• Partnership sprints to develop collaboration concepts that build on synergies in research capability-building
• Barrier-busting labs to identify solutions to common system-level challenges in international collaboration
• Workshop sessions to identify researcher strategies for building and sustaining international research collaborations

Stream Two: UTTHAN Pathways Mentorship Pilot

A three-month virtual mentorship program connecting early-career researchers and postgraduate students from Indian L3 institutions with Australian regional university mentors.

• Mentors and mentees are matched within two priority research domains

• Mentees develop a research concept note for an Australia-India grant opportunity or collaborative innovation proposal

• A sequence of sessions progressing from grant principles through to a finalised concept note ready for submission

Stream Three: UTTHAN Pathways Learning Module on Bilateral Research Collaboration for Regional Impact

A self-paced online module co-designed with Australian and Indian expertise, providing practical guidance on building and sustaining international research partnerships that address regional development challenges. Areas of guidance may include:

• Identifying shared regional challenges as a basis for collaboration
• Building equitable and mutually beneficial research partnerships
• Institutional support structures for international collaboration
• Monitoring and demonstrating regional impact from collaborative activities