Scientists from the University of Greenwich are part of a new collaboration between the UK and India which launches today (Friday 26 February).
Kevin Lam, a chemist at the University of Greenwich School of Science, has been involved with the project from the start.
He said: “After Brexit we needed a plan B, in case collaborative research becomes more difficult with EU countries.
“We got in touch with Indian colleagues and found there wasn’t really much in place for collaboration with the UK. We put a proposal together and the UK and India governments got behind it with £100k to start to launch the collaboration.
“The initial money can be used to hire assistants, make the website, and get us all virtual reality setups.
“We can use VR for meetings, as well as looking at molecules in 3D and walking around them. It can be used for new everything from new materials to new drug design and this is just the beginning. Dr Stephen Hilton from the UCL School of Pharmacy has designed some videos. This picture is a still from one, which gives you an idea of what can be done. We can also share designs for each other to print in 3D. The next step is research and outreach."
The consortium is supported by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, British High Commission New Delhi and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Other UK universities involved are: Queen Mary, Oxford, St Andrews and UCL.
