Efforts to ensure the availability of safe drinking water, sustainable infrastructure, and good public health practices are complex global issues that require multiple stakeholders and scientific disciplines to generate cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Canada and India share strong bilateral ties, including a well-established history of research collaborations. The Government of India has also made public-private partnerships a priority to tackle an infrastructure deficit that compromises public health and economic growth. This opens opportunities for technology sharing, professional development, and partnerships with Canada.

How IC-IMPACTS is seizing the opportunity

The India-Canada Centre for Innovative Multidisciplinary Partnerships to Accelerate Community Transformation and Sustainability (IC-IMPACTS) and its partners are developing and implementing community-based solutions to meet the most urgent needs faced by some communities in Canada and India: poor water quality, unsafe and unsustainable infrastructure, and poor health from water-borne and infectious diseases. Under IC-IMPACTS’ leadership, researchers, industry innovators, community organizations and government agencies work collaboratively to develop and test local solutions that can be scaled up across India and Canada. The centre also provides training and professional development to address critical skills shortages.

Among the results

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), India and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), India continue their collaborations with IC-IMPACTS in the areas of Safe and Sustainable Infrastructure, Public Health, Integrated Water Management, and Food Security. To date, a total of 31 Canada-India projects have been awarded with matching funding from DST and DBT.
Since 2013, IC-IMPACTS has trained a total of 1,331 HQPs, including graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research associates and research staff, 32% of whom are female. 97% of IC-IMPACTS graduates are employed in either academic, industry, or government bodies. Through 74 funded projects, IC-IMPACTS researchers have so far launched 8 start-up companies, produced 1,431 scientific publications, filed 32 patents and technology disclosures, and created 383 partnerships.
There have been 25 deployments in remote and indigenous communities in Canada and in India. Researchers at the University of British Columbia, in partnership with the Lytton Creek First Nation, Bi Pure Water, Kerr Wood Leidal, and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, successfully deployed a water treatment technology in Lytton Creek First Nation, lifting the boil water advisory for the first time after 10 years.
Dr. Nemy Banthia’s collaboration with Metro Vancouver resulted in the successful installation of the novel concrete pipe coating material at a sewer chamber in Delta, British Columbia. Metro Vancouver, has around 9,000 kilometers of sewer pipes which will at some point in the near future need to be repaired. The demonstration project proved the material to be scalable and easy to apply, ideal for use as repair material for deteriorating sewerage infrastructure.
With IC-IMPACTS’ innovative self-healing pavement technology in Thondebhavi, India, residents now have access to markets for their crops and the economy has been stimulated, all while reducing greenhouse gases, decreasing construction material requirements, and reducing costs. A second, more enhanced, self-healing pavement has been installed at the Chawathil First Nation Community in British Columbia. The material is continuously being monitored using smart sensors which were installed in the pavement at the time of construction.
Mira Johri of University of Montreal, in a collaboration with IIT-Delhi, established an emergency network of civil society partners to aid in India’s COVID-19 response and to evaluate and learn from the work. During the project’s first 100 days, the research team initiated a COVID-19 response network reaching 1.15 million individuals with audio content to aid in awareness and health promotion.