Kharagpur (West Bengal), Aug 18 (IANS): The DRDO has inked a deal with IIT-Kharagpur to undertake collaborative research to meet the futuristic defence technological needs of the country.

The memorandum of collaboration (MoC) aims to facilitate the ongoing research programmes of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and to initiate a collaborative research and academic programme in select areas of relevance to national defence, said a statement from Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur on Tuesday.

Tentative areas of collaborative research include cyber physical systems, information security, life science, energy storage devices and materials and underwater vehicles.

"These may be modified to incorporate newer areas of mutual interest. The directed basic and applied research initiatives will be aimed to achieve self-reliance in select defence technologies.

"The MoC will also facilitate bilateral mobility of faculty, researchers and students and resource sharing between both institutions," the statement said.

Both institutions will also explore the possibility of joint planning and participation in some of the existing academic programmes of IIT-Kharagpur, such as International Summer and Winter School (ISWT), micro-credit courses, micro-specialisations and will also consider jointly organising workshops, seminars and conferences and to establish specific programmes to facilitate exchange of scientists, faculty and students.

Funds for collaborative research would be approved by the DRDO as per its procedures.

The MoC was signed at the 65th foundation day of IIT-Kgp where DRDO Director General S. Christopher was the chief guest. He was honoured with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.