india's Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (csir) has joined hands with eight similar organisations to form the Global Research Alliance (gra) in New Delhi on January 21. Its main objective is to establish itself in the research consultancy megamarket. gra signifies the culmination of an agreement reached in Pretoria in April 2002 between leading research and development (r&d) institutions from Australia, Finland, Germany, India, Malaysia, South Africa and the Netherlands.

According to csir director general R A Mashelkar, this is the first ever attempt by any Indian scientific organisation to sell its technical expertise in the global market in an organised manner. "In return, we expect to get international exposure and have access to top-class technology,' he adds.

The research consortium, with a combined strength of 50,000 scientists and technocrats, will open its secretariat in Pretoria in the next three to four months. It will organise two high-level workshops on water and energy soon. "The aim of this exercise is to bring together top scientists from member institutions and devise novel scientific and technological solutions to problems in these areas,' says Reinie Biesenbach, who heads Pretoria's gra centre.

The alliance will bid for major r&d projects floated by various national governments and international agencies, and try to rope in private and public foundations for funding projects.