MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 98 7 INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA COLLABORATION The extent of technology required for the advancement of scientific knowledge necessitates a strong collaboration between academia and industries. Mega Science Projects being an integral part of this whole framework, have very strong dependency on long-term partnerships between academia and industries. Effective use of advanced and cutting- edge technologies are highly required for capacity building leading to excellence towards astronomy-based mega science projects. Sharing available resources, benefits and risks by generation of ideas, prototyping, innovations etc. will be able to enhance the productivity towards large/mega projects in astronomy. Industrial involvement is also important to produce high-precision components in large quantities. As a spin-off, such R&D synergy between industries and academia would not only be able to provide more job opportunities but also translate the technology into products for societal benefits, both nationally and internationally. The ongoing mega projects are examples where partnerships and collaborations with Indian and foreign industries are going on at a large scale. For example, India's in-kind obligations to the TMT project, in both hardware and software related aspects, are being executed through partnerships with industries. The research institutions involved in the project are working with large industries and MSMEs in the country, in close coordination with the TMT Project Office, to understand the requirements and manufacture hardware components through technology transfer and other collaborative methods. India is now in a situation to supply the full sets of high-precision components of the primary mirror of the TMT only because of long-term prototyping exercises carried out with several Indian industries over the years. Likewise, a team from NCRA along with industry partners led the design effort from initial concept to the successful final critical design review for the Telescope Manager System of SKAPhase-1, an end-to-end observatory management system that will be the brain and nerve centre of the entire, distributed observatory. For LIGO-India, one of the largest ultra-high vacuum systems of the world needs to be built, which will of course be unimaginable without industry-academia partnerships. The partnership has already led to the design and build of prototype high vacuum chambers. In a similar way, for other ongoing and planned mega projects in astronomy, academia-industry collaboration will be one of the key components that will enable pursuing front-line science using cutting-edge technologies. The experience and skills gained by the industries associated with the mega science projects will be very useful not only for future astronomy projects in the country, but also in the manufacture of high precision engineering, opto- mechanical and electro-optical systems that have applications beyond astronomy, such as in defence and healthcare. Afew industries have already benefited through their association with large astronomy projects in the past. These have been in the areas of thin film coating and vacuum technology, control systems software, high precision optical components, database management software, etc. These are summarised in detail in Table A3 (Annexure) that provides a list of Indian industries associated with the ongoing mega projects. This table also provides their exact involvements in the projects. The industry-academia collaboration developed through astronomy projects can be leveraged to lead to public-private partnerships (PPPs) in niche areas in the country like education technology (design and manufacture of small telescopes and instruments), providing R&D services in emerging technology areas, etc. Also, some unique technology and facilities available with the research centres, such as those for detector and instrument control systems, laboratories for space instruments and manufacture of large optics, etc., can be shared with industrial partners. Such a synergy between industries and academia will enhance the nation's growth and enable the whole ecosystem to be globally more competitive. Such joint R&D activity will also help generate a set of academics who are industry compatible or employable. MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035