Two ‘Unnati’ India collaboration grants for University of Melbourne researchers

Two researchers from the University of Melbourne have been awarded Australia India 'Unnati' Research Collaboration Grants, which aim to boost and deepen research collaboration between Australia and India.

Associate Professor Meenakshi Arora, leader of the ‘Urban Water infrastructure’ group in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, and Professor Andrew May, Professor in Australian History in the Faculty of Arts, have been awarded the prestigious grants.

Administered by the Australia India Institute and funded by the Australian Government Department of Education, the grants were presented to 12 Australian researchers, who will each receive up to $30,000 for collaborative research in areas of shared interest between Australia and India.

Associate Professor Arora will seek innovative solutions for safe drinking water in rural India, and Professor May will investigate the role of digitising cities in improving tourism, social wellbeing, urban planning and heritage diplomacy.

Associate Professor Arora, who is also Director of the Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy, aims to determine the cause of groundwater contamination with high levels of fluoride in West Bengal's rural areas, collaborating with Dr Manoj Tiwari (Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur).

Together, they will investigate how effectively existing techniques for improving water quality are working, examine possible solutions for resolving fluoride pollution in groundwater and, if necessary, evaluate cost-effective and energy-efficient alternatives to ensure safe drinking water.

Professor May and colleagues Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang (North-Eastern Hill University), Dr Madeline Tham (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage), and Nathaniel Majaw (St Anthony’s College) will develop an online, interactive platform exploring extensive information about Shillong, a city in India.

The researchers will map past cultural and social trends of the city, and will provide resources on the city’s heritage sites, as well as crowd-sourced data to analyse the ability of digital humanities tools to create lasting social impact.