T-Hub in partnership with Digital Catapult, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Department for International Trade (DIT) will enable the creation of ‘The UK-India VR/AR Sustainability Expert Group’ to boost UK-India collaborations. The partnership will help increase the innovation quotient between the two countries in immersive technology and towards achieving net zero emissions target by 2050. 

There has been an ever-increasing focus on climate change, which requires the deployment of innovation not only in new technologies but also in new ways of implementing existing technologies, new business models, and, importantly, new policy and regulation. This partnership aims to enable a collaborative building of an immersive demo or prototype by the expert group that can be showcased at the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) scheduled to be held in Glasgow in November 2021.

A total of ten startups, academic institutes and five corporates as well as sustainability organisations will collaborate in phase one. 

T-Hub and Digital Catapult are scouting five VR/ AR startups and five research institutes in the UK and India. Meanwhile, UK FCDO and DIT are identifying five corporate or sustainability organisations who are engaged in immersive technologies to tackle climate change globally.

The partnership will focus on collating all the relevant research and development factors to overcome global sustainability issues. The R&D research will be submitted to the Department for International Trade, UK Government. In March 2021, a half-day workshop will be conducted for the expert group to agree on themes, discuss project ideas and challenges that immersive technologies can solve. The workshop will also allow all the stakeholders involved in the group to explore possible commercial collaborations. The outcome of this workshop and phase 1 of the project will be a 3-5 page plan for this new UK-India R&D programme, that will be launched in the next financial year if further funding is secured. This R&D programme will have the goal of enabling the collaborative building of an immersive demo / prototype that can be showcased at COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021.

Inviting startups, corporates, climate change organisations, universities, experts and research institutions working in VR/ AR  space. This is your opportunity to take VR/ AR innovation to the next level.