Tuesday, September 19 2006 12:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Kinetic Cubed, a year-old business consulting company based in Lancaster University, has been awarded a contract to advise the British and Indian Governments to develop trade collaboration between the two countries.

The contract, awarded by Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, focuses on creating partnerships in science and technology. The company is based at the university's InfoLab21 and is planning to open an office in New Delhi.

The project aims to encourage the commercialisation of India's scientific research, bringing together British and Indian expertise, business and finance and translating research collaboration into commercial outcomes.

"This means a great deal to us because our clients are the British and Indian Governments," Tony Aggarwal, Kinetic's leader on the project, told the local Lancaster media.

"What we say could influence national policy. India is an emerging market and the potential benefits are huge. I'm going out to meet various players like universities, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to build up contacts," he said.

The company's findings will be presented to senior government figures at the UK-India Roundtable in April next year. The roundtable was set up by the then foreign secretary Robin Cook and former Indian foreign minister Jaswant Singh in 2000.

Mark Beresford, one of the founders of Kinetic, said, "Lancaster University is a well respected institution in both the UK and India. It's a key strategic project for us and we've done pretty well to be working at such a high level with UK and Indian policy makers."