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INTEGRATED HEALTH PROJECT

Creation of a Franco-Indian Center of Excellence in Life Sciences for Health

Project Summary

This joint project is proposed by Sorbonne University and IIT Delhi centers on themes falling under the strategic axis of "Integrated Health", common to both partners. Mostly articulated around the two levels of master's and doctoral education, the objective of our project is to promote exchanges of expertise, best practices and scientific culture between the two countries, represented by two first-class research and education institutions. Sorbonne University and IIT Delhi are both intensive research universities, with a very broad and complementary spectrum in research and education. Our "Integrated Health" project will therefore implement unique skills in basic biology and health sciences but will also go further by including engineering, chemistry, physics, modelling, applied mathematics, bioinformatics, computer science, humanities and social sciences applied to medicine and beyond. Our common ambition is to develop a long term and inclusive partnership dedicated to the creation of an interdisciplinary and transversal Franco-Indian campus fostering collective contribution to societal and medical challenges that our populations will face in the coming years and decades.


Project Description

1. Context and Challenges

Franco-Indian diplomatic relations have gained in strength since 1998 with emblematic collaborations in defense, counter-terrorism, space, and the environment. The Sorbonne University-IIT Delhi partnership will pave the way for groundbreaking collaborations in health sciences.

After a decade of debate, the Indian government is implementing a new National Education Plan, which sets in motion a new policy for the internationalization of Indian Higher Education. The policy provides for more autonomy in the development of several types of transnational education ventures, such as double degrees, joint programs (twinning), and the establishment of foreign HEIs in India. With a growing middle class, India is seeking to strengthen and expand its higher education offer for its youth. The Sorbonne University-IIT Delhi “Integrated Health” project will respond to this call from the market by offering quality, internationally renowned and accredited education at the master's and doctoral level.

In terms of public health, India is experiencing an increase in life expectancy, but it remains lower compared to other emerging economies. Access to healthcare is highly variable from state and state handicapped by a lack of resources. To provide affordable health care to its billions, India needs to leverage technology in innovative ways. These ways would include low-cost devices for monitoring health/disease, healthcare protocols that can be run with limited resources, and development of technologies that build on traditional approaches for healthy living and well-being that are widespread across India. Besides providing a healthy workforce, which has its own economic benefits, these interventions in the healthcare sector of India have the potential to create numerous skilled jobs in a country that is in urgent need of employment opportunities for its large youth population.

While India has a fair number of HEIs to train healthcare professionals in the traditional ways, the number of Institutions/Universities producing professionals who can innovate and apply new technologies to healthcare is rather limited. These include IISc and some IISERS and first-generation IITs, and all these institutions have only recently recognized the need to bring a more technology-focused approach to healthcare.

2. Principal realizations at the term of the project and 5-year projection

At the end of the first two years, our project will have led to bachelor and master level student exchanges between our two institutions through internships and semester credit transfer in the area of life sciences for health and biomedical engineering. Joint Summer Schools dedicated to entrepreneurship and innovation for health will have been launched and conducted alternately at both institutions. Their objectives will be to develop in students and young researchers a better knowledge of the economic and regulatory ecosystems of both countries and to promote intercultural awareness. Industrial partners from both institutions will be involved to strengthen the professional integration and employability of our students and young researchers to respond to the specific socio-economic needs related to the local health sectors. Annual workshops will be organized for faculty on both academic and scientific topics to promote the sharing of experience and to create a space for scientific emergence and cross-fertilization on research, education, innovation, and dissemination. In this cooperative context, scientific collaborations will have emerged leading to joint PhD projects, PhD student mobility, publications, and knowledge dissemination. Applications to Erasmus+ (KA171) and CEFIPRA programs will have been made to ensure long-term sustainability of reciprocal mobility for students, PhD candidates, and academic and administrative staff.

Our shared ambition for the longer term is to develop an inclusive partnership dedicated to the creation of an interdisciplinary and transversal Franco-Indian campus fostering collective contribution to challenges and changes that our populations and planet will face in the coming years and decades. In that sense, workshops will be organized in the first two years to bring together institutes from both partners to develop academic and scientific collaborations going beyond life sciences for health. Several synergies have already been identified and include climate change and environmental transition, medical humanities, artificial intelligence, civil engineering, quantum computing and communications, physics, and chemistry. The strength and the solid bases on which our partnership will be built will then serve as a platform for involving novel academic and industrial partners in our Franco-Indian campus and to extend its influence in both countries and beyond.

3. A canvas of the HEIs’ past and ongoing collaborations related to the proposed project

Collaboration between Sorbonne University and IIT Delhi in the life sciences for health will be a novel venture. However, mobility is at the center of the international strategies of both HEIs.

Sorbonne University has extensive experience in coordinating strategic partnerships and mobility projects on a European and international scale and adheres to the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE). In the health sciences, the experience includes:

·       Various joint scientific and educational projects through the 4EU+ Alliance (Universities of Heidelberg, Warsaw, Milano, Copenhagen, and Charles University)

·       A Master’s in Molecular and Cellular Biology with partners University of Heidelberg, Charles University (Prague), the University of Sao Paulo, the University of Lisbon, and the University of Pompeu Fabra Barcelona. 530 students enrolled over two years.

·       A Master’s in Integrative Biology and Physiology with partners University of Heidelberg, University of Vienna, KU Leuven, TU Munich, UNAM, and UCL (London). 400 students enrolled over two years.

 

·       A large number of Erasmus+ bilateral agreements and student mobility agreements with non- European partners allowing students from the above-mentioned MSc programs to study abroad for credit mobility and/or to complete an internship.

IIT Delhi also has experience with:

·       The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, which is the premier Institute for Medical Sciences in India. In fact, the Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBME) was established in 1971 as a Joint venture of IIT Delhi and AIIMS, Delhi.

·       Harvard Medical School-USA, University of Paderborn-Germany and Duke University-USA on Biomaterials

·       Hiroshima University-Japan, Tottori University-Japan, Queensland University of Technology-Australia on a bio design program implemented jointly with AIIMS.

·       National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan) on the joint research laboratory, for Advanced Biomedicine (DAILAB)

4. Planned academic programs and activities

The core project centers on three complementary scientific domains dedicated to Health: life sciences, biomedical engineering, and biotechnologies. It will mainly revolve around the master's and doctoral levels with possibilities of opening up to selected bachelor students in the field of innovative public health science. The project is based on a continuum between education and research, which is rendered possible by the equal support of both institutions to the core of disciplinary fields but also to interdisciplinary approaches needed to tackle multiscale scientific questions. At SU, this balance is embodied by the university’s past choices made for previous financed educational projects (“Programme d’Investissements d’avenir”, PIA) to complement the disciplinary-based degrees with an interdisciplinary focus. This political choice also led to the creation of multidisciplinary institutes and initiatives in research, supported by IDEX (Initiative d’Excellence) funding, to articulate competencies from various disciplines on a given topic and to support interdisciplinary research [Read here].

The main project is divided into 2 actions: a first phase, which can be implemented quickly thanks to the existence of already defined structures, and a second phase of deployment of joint actions on the basis of the expertise of each partner. For IIT Delhi, four primary structures will be involved: Center for Biomedical Engineering, Kusuma School of Biological Sciences, Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology and Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. For SU, five structures will be involved (Department (UFR) of life science, Department (UFR) of engineering science, i-Bio Initiative, Institute for Health Engineering (IUIS) and Institute of Oncology (IUC)) with a strong partnership and support of the Paris Brain Institute (ICM), the Institut de la Vision and the Obepine consortium. In order to launch the Franco-Indian campus quickly, our first action will consist of organizing, at the end of 2022, two workshops dedicated to either educational training or research in the field of life sciences for Health. These joint meetings will foster faculty connection, the programming of student exchange, and the development of research networks for the first year of the project. The workshops will then be held annually to improve our common practices, involve new partners and participants in the project, and to create a space for scientific emergence and cross-fertilization on research, education, innovation, and dissemination.

In parallel to the core project, a third action will go beyond the life sciences for health topic. The aim of action three is to satisfy our common ambition to develop an inclusive partnership dedicated to the creation of an interdisciplinary and transversal Franco-Indian campus, which fosters collective contribution to societal and technological challenges, and changes that our populations will face in the coming years and decade.

The first step of our project will rely on MSc, MS (Research), MTech and PhD programs currently offered in both institutions. Student exchange will initially take the form of internships. IIT Delhi students will also be welcome to apply to SU international MSc and PhD programs in addition to the existing possibilities proposed by IIT Delhi. Scientific collaborations will be established and synergies will be facilitated between researchers from both partners by the steering committee of the “Integrated Health” project (see section 5). A detailed description of the interdisciplinary research structures and educational programs involved in action 1 is provided in sections 4.1.1 and 4.1.2, respectively.

4.1.1 Research and education departments involved in the “Integrated Health” project

All of the departments and divisions mentioned hereafter are keen to welcome MSc/MTech and PhD students from the partner institution and to develop fruitful scientific and academic collaborations. They all share common and/or complementary skills in the field of biological and biomedical sciences with a shared desire to develop cutting- edge disciplinary and interdisciplinary areas of research and education. To date, more than 40 research teams at both IIT Delhi and SU have shown interest.

·       Kusuma School of Biological Sciences (KSBS), IIT Delhi

The Kusuma School of Biological Sciences (KSBS) was established in 2008, with the broad goal of promoting innovative interdisciplinary research by interfacing modern biology with applied engineering sciences to address problems affecting human health and welfare. KSBS has 16 faculty members, who work on diverse areas pertaining to molecular, structural and systems level understanding of biological phenomena.

KSBS offers two academic programs (MS (Research) and PhD programs) and courses to PhD and MSc students, as well as to undergraduate students who fulfil the prerequisites. Details are provided in section 4.1.2.

·       Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology (DBEB), IIT Delhi

The Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology (DBEB) offers a unique blend of expertise in applied biological sciences, chemical engineering and biochemical engineering. Its ambition is to translate into major strides in biotechnology the major changes seen in the last few decades in our knowledge regarding life forms and our ability to manipulate biological systems to allow Humans positively impacting on health-care, diagnostics, agriculture, food, environment and consumer products.

DBEB offers four academic programs (BTech, MTech, MSc and PhD programs). Details are provided in section 4.1.2.

·       Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBME), IIT Delhi

The Center for Biomedical Engineering (CBME), established in 1971, is a joint venture between IIT Delhi and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi. The Centre has applied engineering principles to address medical and biological problems. CBME has provided interdisciplinary insights to biological research for the development of health care technologies. Over the last two decades, the focus has shifted to include biological medicine, the behavior of molecular health systems, development of biomaterials, rehabilitation engineering, development of medical devices and implants. The broad areas of research conducted at CBME include biomaterials, bioinstrumentation, and medical imaging.

CBME at IIT Delhi offers two academic programs (MTech and PhD programs) as well as a School of International Biodesign. Details are provided in sections 4.1.2 and 4.2.4.

·       Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS), IIT Delhi

The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) has been a fundamental component of IIT Delhi since its inception, remaining faithful to its founders’ vision of a holistic approach to science and technology education and research. DHSS houses a number of disciplines (Economics, Literature, Linguistics, Psychology, Philosophy, Sociology) and is a leading incubator of interdisciplinary research. DHSS research and teaching at IIT Delhi have also been addressing important and emerging issues of health care and medical humanities including cognitive and affective processes in health and disease in neurological and psychiatric population.

DHSS at IIT Delhi runs the MSc program in cognitive science. Details are provided in sections 4.1.2.

·       UFR des Sciences de la Vie, SU

The Life Sciences Department coordinates education and research activities in biology at Sorbonne University. It counts 250 faculty, 350 researchers, 510 administrative and technical staff, and it hosts 2,300 students. The department brings together three training departments (Bachelor's Degree in Life Sciences, Master's in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Master's in Integrative Biology and Physiology) and a Practical Training Center. The broad areas of research in the Life Sciences department include neurosciences, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, computational biology, aging, cancer biology, immunology, microbiology, therapeutics, synthetic biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, structural biology and physiology.

The department is offering several options in the field of life sciences for Health to host IIT Delhi students who wish to do internships at SU.

·       UFR d’Ingénierie, SU

The Department of Engineering brings together education and research activities in computer science, electronics, mechanics, robotics and health engineering. It counts 450 faculty and researchers, 200 administrative and technical staff, 500 PhD students, and it hosts 4,000 students. The department is home to four education departments (Bachelor's Degree in computer science, Bachelor's Degree in electronics and mechanics, Master's Degree In computer science, Master's Degree in Engineering Science) and 14 research units and/or federations.

 

 

·       Initiative for Biology (i-Bio), Alliance SU

i-Bio is part of the multidisciplinary institutes and initiatives supported by Alliance Sorbonne Université, financed through IDEX funding, to gather competencies from various disciplines in biology and to support interdisciplinary research. i-Bio brings together about 60 research teams affiliated with the Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine and the Institut du Fer à Moulin of the Life Sciences Department (UFR) of Sorbonne University.

i-Bio is developing research that is very close and complementary to that of IIT Delhi’s KSBS, DBEB and CBME (see above). i-Bio therefore offers several options in the field of Life and biomedical sciences to host IIT Delhi students who wish to do internships at SU. Moreover, i-Bio runs a pre-doctoral rotation program as well as a three-year PhD program open to non-French candidates (see section 4.1.3).

·       Institut Universitaire d’Ingénierie en Santé (IUIS), Alliance SU

The IUIS encourages educational, scientific and technological innovation in health by providing a structure to host multidisciplinary teams grouped around three themes to be approached in an interactive way: engineering, health, humanities and social sciences. The IUIS offers several international education programs for healthcare innovation (Innovation Days for Health, Fellowship Immersion, MSc program on Technological innovation in Health). IUIS also strongly supports SU BSc and MSc degrees in innovative health sciences (see section 4.1.2) and offers a PhD program supporting projects in Health engineering. The broad areas of research supported by IUIS include but are not limited to: digital health, robotics, electronics, mechatronic systems for rehabilitation, medical imaging, machine learning in healthcare, medical devices and biosensors. IUIS is developing lines of research similar and complementary to those of IIT Delhi’s CBME.

·       Institut Universitaire de Cancérologie (IUC), SU/Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (APHP)

The IUC is dedicated to care, research and education in oncology, and it brings together oncological care services with research and teaching teams from the three faculties of Sorbonne University (Social Sciences, Science & Engineering and Medicine). Its objectives are to make effective, innovative and less toxic cancer prevention and treatment tools. The IUC runs an interdisciplinary PhD program supporting transversal and collaborative projects aiming at creating synergies between medical units and scientific teams working in several research areas including biology, mathematics, engineering, chemistry, physics as well as humanities and social sciences (see section 4.1.3).

·       Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM)

The Paris Brain Institute is a flagship program in France for brain disorders and a member of the IHU and Carnot networks. 25 scientific teams work at the Paris Brain Institute with a shared goal: improve neuroscience research and go further in the fight against neurological and psychiatric diseases. The Paris Brain Institute's research teams are divided into five main fields: Cellular and molecular neurobiology, Integrative neurophysiology, Cognitive neuroscience, Clinical and translational Neuroscience, and Computational modelling in neuroscience. In collaboration with Sorbonne University, the Paris Brain Institute offers an international MSc program dedicated to neurodegenerative diseases (see section 4.1.2) and has expressed interest in developing fruitful collaborations with the laboratories of KSBS, DBEB and CBME.

 

·       Institut de la Vision

The Institut de la Vision is a world leading vision research center. Its goal is to discover, test and develop treatments and technological innovations for preventing or limiting visual impairment and improving the autonomy and the quality of life of patients. The institute houses 19 research teams working on different eyesight problems: retina imaging, AMD (Age-related macular degeneration), glaucoma, diabetic retinopathies, retinitis pigmentosa, etc. In collaboration with Sorbonne University, the Institut de la Vision offers an international MSc program dedicated to vision sciences (see section 4.1.2).

·       Obepine

Created in 2020, Obepine (“Observatoire Epidemiologique dans les eaux usées”) is a consortium that brings together research teams with diverse skills (virology, bacteriology, parasitology, hydrology, mathematics, epidemiology, sensor engineering, robotics, etc.) from several French institutions whose objective is to develop integrated tools for monitoring epidemics and detecting future infectious emergencies through the analysis of wastewater. Initially conceived as a research consortium, Obepine plans to develop training courses on the "One Health" concept, infectiology and epidemiology, and to train Master's and Doctoral students in the challenges of wastewater epidemiology, on a national and international scale (see section 4.1.3).

4.1.2 Training through research programs

Initially, efforts will be made to promote MSc/MTEch students’ internships outgoing mobility of French MSc students to IIT Delhi and Indian MTech and MSc students to SU. SU will also offer to degree-seeking students from IIT Delhi several international MSc degree programs, all taught in English. The heads of the MSc/MTech degree programs mentioned below, who will all be members of the training advisory committee of the “Integrated Health” Franco-Indian campus (see section 4.2.3), will work together to connect students from one institution with researchers from the other. In action 1, five MSc/MTech degrees from IIT Delhi and three MSc from SU will be involved.

·       MSc in Molecular and Cellular Biology (BMC), SU

The objective of the BMC MSc program is to provide students with a broad choice of courses covering cutting- edge knowledge in molecular and cellular biology during their first year of training (biochemistry, developmental biology, genetics, immunology, microbiology, bioinformatics, biotechnology or biophysics). During the second year, students specialize in one of the 15 themes proposed which include but are not limited to: virology, oncology, immunology, drug discovery, structural biology, stem cell biology, microbiology, epigenetics, and bioinformatics. The fourth semester is set aside for six-month internships in laboratories from SU or partners. Internships in the fields of virology, drug discovery, synthetic biology, cancer biology, metagenomics, computational Biology and structural biology will be offered by laboratories from DBEB, CBME and KSBS to selected SU students. This mobility will be fully financed by the “Integrated Health” project.

The BMC MSc program also runs a 2-year international program entitled “From fundamental molecular biosciences to biotherapies”. The aim of this program is to offer strong training in fundamental molecular biosciences applied to biotherapies through a multidisciplinary approach given by renowned partner universities (Heidelberg University, Charles University Prague, Sao Paulo University, Lisbon University, Barcelona Pompeu Fabra University). The program consists of four semesters including course work and a six- month internship. The program is entirely taught in English and can therefore host IIT Delhi students wishing to pursue a degree from SU. In semester 4, internships in the fields of cancer biology, stem cell biology and bioinformatics for health will be offered to SU students by laboratories from DBEB, CBME and KSBS. In action 2, steps will be taken to integrate IIT Delhi as one of the renowned MSc program partners offering six-month courses to SU students (see section 4.2.1). Mobility will be fully financed by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       MSc in Integrative Biology and Physiology (BIP), SU

The objective of the BIP MSc program is to provide students with the most recent concepts of integrative biology by focusing on biological mechanisms underlying the various physiological and pathological functions going from the cell to the body. During the first year, the program consists of intensive course work and a 2 to 4-month internship in France or abroad. As in the BMC MSc program, students will specialize during their second year in one of the proposed options including the four related to Health (aging and longevity, modeling and data analysis, physiology and physiopathology and neurosciences) through theoretical courses during the first 6 months and internships during the last semester. Internships in the fields of disease modeling, metabolic diseases, ion channel and receptor biology, cancer biology and cognitive sciences will be offered to selected SU students by laboratories from DBEB, KSBS and DHSS from IIT Delhi (see below and actions 2 & 3). Student mobility will be fully financed by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       The BIP MSc program also offers two international programs related to neurosciences:

“International Master of Vision Sciences, iMOV”. iMOV proposes, in close collaboration with the world leading Institut de la Vision, a 2nd-year specialization in vision sciences for selected students having chosen the “Neurosciences” option of the BIP MSc program. International MSc students specialized in neuroscience can also apply directly to the 2nd-year MSc iMOV program. This program has also developed a strong partnership with the “University Nacional Autonoma de Mexico” (UNAM), the largest University in Latin America, to propose a joint double-degree MSc program. Thus, any student doing at least two semesters in each institution (SU and UNAM), during the two years’ time of the MSc program, will receive two MSc degrees, one from each university. The training program is entirely in English and can therefore host IIT Delhi students seeking a degree from SU. iMOV proposes, in the first six months, theoretical courses covering several key issues (physics of the eye, computational modelling of information processing, neurophysiology of the visual cortex, object and face perception, physiopathology of sensory diseases, translational research, cell and gene therapy, implants). The second semester is available to do internships in vision sciences in partner universities and elsewhere. In that context, internships in the fields of vision sciences, implants and medical devices will be offered to SU students by laboratories from DBEB, CBME and KSBS. iMOV also provides funding for transportation and living expenses abroad for students engaged in the program. iMOV and the “Integrated Health” project will therefore work together to finance mobility.

·     “International Master in Neurodegenerative Diseases, iMIND”. 

iMIND proposes, in close collaboration with the Paris Brain Institute, a 2nd-year specialization in Neurodegenerative Diseases for selected students having chosen the “Neurosciences” option of the BIP MSc program. This research-oriented program is designed to bring the latest scientific advances in the field of neurodegenerative diseases to students, in close proximity with the research community (medical & scientific teams, senior and junior researchers, technical platforms, living labs, R&D…). This program is entirely in English and can therefore host IIT Delhi students interested in a degree from SU or in a semester of studies in Paris. The Paris Brain Institute also proposes up to four scholarships offered to international students for the first semester upon selection. This selective MSc program proposes, in the first six months, theoretical courses covering several key matters (novel technologies applied to human neuropathologies, transdisciplinary approaches in neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases, glial pathologies) and offers access to the dedicated Brain to Market Summer School run by the Paris Brain Institute. The second semester is dedicated to internships at SU, ICM or in partner universities (University of Heidelberg, Trinity College Dublin, the Catholic University of Leuven and the Technical University of Munich). Internships in the fields of neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive sciences and epilepsy will be offered to SU students by laboratories from DBEB, DHSS and KSBS. iMIND is indeed happy to welcome new partnerships with international universities but also to go further through international credit validation and/or double-degrees (see section 4.2.1). Student mobility of SU students wanting to do their internship at IIT Delhi will be fully financed by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       MSc in Engineering for Health, SU

Within the MSc degree in Science Engineering offered by the department of engineering at SU, a 2-year program dedicated to Health (“Ingénierie Pour la Santé”, IPS) is run in close collaboration with the Institute for Health Engineering (IUIS). The program aims to train experts capable of proposing and implementing innovative technologies for the medical world and patients. The program ensures a strong employability rate of its graduates in the medical device or equipment for rehabilitation sectors, in public or private research and development laboratories, as well as in hospitals or clinics. The program takes place over two years with a common core of theoretical and practical courses during the first semester followed by an orientation towards more specialized studies:

·       “Medical Systems and Devices Technology, TSDM”. 

The objective of this program is to bring together medical disciplines and applied sciences to give students a dual culture allowing the development of medical technologies. TSDM proposes, during the first six months of the second year, courses covering medical devices technology and development, electronic instrumentation, bioengineering, social and medical robotics, applied imaging, communicating systems and entrepreneurship.

·       “Mechatronic Systems for Rehabilitation, MSR”. 

This program, offered in partnership with Brescia University (Italy), is focused on design of mechatronics systems that are in interaction with humans. Like the iMOV program, it allows students to receive degrees from both universities. The first semester takes place in Paris while the second is held in Brescia. During the second year, student learning is reinforced in Paris by higher levels of modeling and an introduction to: Human-Machine interaction, human posture and behavior needed to develop mechatronics systems for rehabilitation.

Both programs conclude with a 6-month internship in academic or industrial laboratories. Internships in the fields of medical devices and mechatronics will be offered to SU students by laboratories from CBME. The student mobility will be fully financed by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       “Technological Innovation in Health, MTiH”. 

The MTiH program provides young biomedical engineers with complementary skills in Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This program is shared by five universities: SU, Université Grenoble Alpes (France), Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain), and University of Lisbon (Portugal). At SU, it includes two semesters in the IPS MSc programs (MSR or TSDM) and one semester of international mobility in one of the partner universities. The last semester is dedicated to a 5-month internship in a company, mentored by a non-academic. Internships in the fields of biomedical engineering will be offered to SU students by industries and or start-ups collaborating with CBME.

·       MS (Research) in Biological Sciences (KSBS), IIT Delhi

KSBS offers a Master of Science (Research) degree program providing students interested in research with more time to devote to a research project. The MSc degree is an option for students inclined towards research but who need time to choose a career path. KSBS offers a seamless migration to the PhD program for students who wish to continue in research. In that context, SU will welcome selected KSBS MS (Research) students to pursue one semester of their research work in a laboratory associated with the department of life science. This would allow for new collaborations between KSBS and SU’s laboratories on topics related to Life Science for Health and open to a seamless migration to PhD programs at SU or KSBS. During that period, SU will offer the selected students the opportunity to take courses as auditors to acquire or deepen their skills in specific biological fields or in other scientific disciplines. Such mobility will be eligible for funding by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       MS (Research) in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DBEB), IIT Delhi

DBEB offers a Master of Science (Research) degree program. The structure and rules are the same as for the one offered by KSBS. However, the course work includes training in several complementary aspects of biology. As for the program offered by KSBS, SU will host selected DBEB MS (Research) students to pursue one semester of their research work in a laboratory associated with the departments of life science and/or of applied chemistry. Student mobility will be fully funded by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       MSc in Cognitive Sciences (DHSS), IIT Delhi

The MSc degree program in cognitive science is offered by DHSS at IIT Delhi. The MSc program aims to create a knowledge pool to address relevant problems under the ambit of human cognition. The total duration of the program is four semesters that involves laying the foundations through core courses. Internships will be offered to IIT Delhi students by laboratories working in the field of cognitive science at Institut de Biologie Paris-Seine, Paris Brain Institute as well as in the Institute of intelligent systems and robotics (associated with IUIS) where fundamental and applied research in the field of social perception, social interaction and social robotics is conducted (PIRoS team). Student mobility will be fully funded by the “Integrated Health” project.

·       MTech in Biomedical Engineering (CBME), IIT Delhi

CBME at IIT Delhi offers an MTech degree program providing exposure to students in the world of technology. This program is oriented towards biomedical industry-specific needs. It mainly focuses on various engineering and industrial specializations with one year of stringent course work requirement followed by another year of research. In that context, internships will be offered to IIT Delhi students by laboratories associated with IUIS, i- Bio, Paris Brain Institute as well as other research facilities present at SU. Additional courses as well as innovation and entrepreneurship skills will be offered upon request. The exchange program with SU will therefore boost the existing teaching and research being carried out by CBME. Through this exchange, the technological focus of the MSc program at IIT Delhi along with yearlong research at SU would provide students with adequate practical knowledge. It would result in globally competitive human resources that can not only uplift the start-up culture and industrial output but will also fuel high-quality scientific research related to biomedical science and engineering. Student mobility will be fully funded by the “Integrated Health” project.

 

·       MTech in Biomolecular and Bioprocessing Engineering (DBEB), IIT Delhi

Besides the MS (Research) program, DBEB offers an MTech degree program. This program is focused on bioengineering, bioprocessing and industrial processes to bring biotechnologies to large scale production. It proposes one year of stringent course work followed by another year of research. As for the program run by CBME, internships will be offered on specific topics to DBEB students by laboratories of i-Bio (synthetic biology, protein engineering) as well as of structures working on process engineering and chemical engineering at SU. Student mobility will be eligible for funding by the “Integrated Health” project.

4.1.3 Implementing scientific partnerships through identified synergies

A call for expressions of interest was initiated at IIT Delhi and SU in August 2022. As mentioned above, more than 40 research teams at both IIT Delhi and SU have already shown interest in hosting MSc students in the field of biology and biomedical engineering for health. They are determined to go further by implementing long-term scientific collaborations. Thus, contact laboratories will be identified with the help of the advisory committees of the “Integrated Health” project (see section 4.2.3 and section 5). In November 2022, a call for collaborative projects will be launched. Selected research teams will be invited to the workshop dedicated to research planned in December 2022. Short-term missions will then be open to researchers and faculty to strengthen their collaborative work. In 2023, 3 to 6-month fellowships will be proposed to support PhD student mobility in order for them to strengthen their research projects.

Synergies have been identified in the fields of neurosciences (neuronal plasticity, cognitive science, neurodegenerative disease, epilepsy, vision science), cancer biology, infectious diseases (virology, bacteriology), childhood genetic diseases (auto-inflammatory diseases, pulmonary diseases and development diseases), non-communicable diseases (diabetes, stroke, cardio-metabolism) as well as in multi-scale approaches developed at the edge of several disciplines (computational biology, physics, chemical biology, imaging, structural biology, biomedical engineering, biotechnologies, and synthetic biology). In addition to the research units described in section 4.1.1, these topics involve research teams from the “Centre de recherche St-Antoine”, “Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers”, “Institut de Myologie”, “Institut de Biologie Paris Seine” and of the laboratory of childhood genetic diseases at Trousseau hospital at SU. Laboratories from the “All India Institute of Medical Sciences” (AIIMS) with which IIT Delhi collaborates closely have also been identified.

·       PhD programs

Aside from the PhD programs run by each institution and structures associated with the “Integrated Health” project (CBME, KSBS, DBEB, IUIS, Paris Brain Institute), three programs will offer dedicated PhD fellowships:

-               IUC offers an interdisciplinary PhD program in Oncology. In order to support emerging collaborations in the field of cancer, the program will offer in 2023 one dedicated 3-year PhD fellowship to support a collaborative IIT Delhi/SU research project to either a student from SU or a student from IIT Delhi. A call for applications will be published and a joint SU-IIT Delhi committee will select the most qualified candidate.

-               The Obepine consortium will support a PhD project in the field of wastewater epidemiology, bioinstrumentation and biomaterials in order to develop novel bio sensing technologies to improve the sensitivity of methodologies in detecting viruses (SARS-CoV-2 variants and beyond) in wastewater and in environmental seeds while maintaining a high level of reliability.

-               I-Bio offers a fully funded 4-year innovative research program to work at the interface between biology and other scientific disciplines to candidates interested in working at the Paris-Seine Biology institute or the Fer à Moulin institute in Paris (both parts of i-Bio). In 2023, four positions will be opened, and i-Bio will strongly encourage applications from outstanding IIT Delhi students. This program comprises a pre-doctoral rotation year followed by a 3-year PhD. The pre-doctoral year consists of a rotational assignment of three consecutive missions of approximately three months each, in three separate laboratories on three different research projects. At the end of the pre-doctoral year, validated by an ad hoc committee, selected candidates will benefit from a 3-year i-Bio PhD contract. They will choose their PhD project among those proposed by the three laboratories where they performed their rotation. The PhD students will be under the co-supervision of two mentors, a biologist and a scientist from another scientific discipline, one of whom may be from IIT Delhi. Financial support allowing the selected candidate to buy personal equipment, register for conferences or carry out missions abroad will be offered by i-Bio.

All PhD students involved in the “Integrated Health” project will benefit from a variety of educational programs, state-of-the-art research facilities, training initiatives, international partnerships and conferences offered by both IIT Delhi and SU.

4.1.4 Ensuring long-term sustainability

The “Integrated Health” project will promote mobility and people-to-people connectivity between our two institutions in order to stimulate the emergence of joint education and research projects. One of our priorities is therefore to secure funding for two-way student and staff mobility. Responses to calls from the Erasmus+ and CEFIPRA programs will be made in 2023 and renewed in 2024.

·       Erasmus+, Key Action (KA) 171:

Since 2015, Erasmus+ opened up mobility opportunities in the field of higher education to individuals and organizations located outside the European Union. Through "International Credit Mobility" (ICM), European HEIs can set up mobility agreements with partners around the world. Collaboration with India is part of the action supported by the external policy instruments (KA171). This financial body allows European HEIs to welcome students and staff from India without restrictions. However, only outgoing European post-graduate doctoral students (PhD) or staff will be eligible for the mobility agreement. Bachelor’s and master’s level mobility from European HEIs to India may nevertheless be funded by European HEI mobility projects supported by internal policy funds, through the international opening of KA131 not to surpass the ceiling of 20% of the awarded budget.

As a European HEI holding a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE), SU will submit its ICM project based on the “Integrated Health” project philosophy to the Erasmus+ French national agency with IIT Delhi as partner. SU and IIT Delhi will work together on a strong Erasmus+ proposal that will foster the mobility of students, academic and administrative staff linked to the “Integrated Health” project. The estimated date for the first application of our consortium to Erasmus+ funding is February 2023 for a start on August 2023. This potential financial support will ensure the deployment of student mobility and will facilitate the interactions of our research communities to apply for funding programs run by CEFIPRA.

·       CEFIPRA

The Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (Centre Franco-Indien pour la Promotion de la Recherche Avancée, CEFIPRA) is supported by Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India and the Ministry for Europe & Foreign Affairs, Government of France. It promotes academia-to-academia collaborations between Indian and French academic institutions and runs several programs for which we will apply.

In particular, laboratories from both SU and IIT Delhi will be encouraged to submit joint projects to:

·       Collaborative Scientific Research programs (up to 200 K euros): The anticipated date for application in the field of life & health sciences is July 2023.

·       DST/ANR targeted programs in the fields of infectious diseases, engineering sciences and neurosciences. The projects are funded for a maximum of three years by DST in India and by ANR in France.

Those actions will foster the scientific collaboration between our two institutions and strengthen its deployment in the specific field of life Science for Health. One of the keys to shaping a sustainable and successful project is the community building and the exchange of best practices between members of our two institutions. The French and Indian coordinators, as well as the project manager, will attach great importance to the follow-up of all activities and results within the project, with the clear ambition of building synergies between all participants.

4.2 Action II: Deployment of joint actions based on the expertise of each partner

Several actions in education and research have already been identified by both partners to strengthen cooperation and bring us towards the creation of a fully integrated Franco-Indian campus promoting student and faculty mobility, exchanges and the emergence of a space dedicated to cross-fertilization on research, education, innovation and dissemination.

4.2.1 Promoting international credit validation

As mentioned in section 4.1.2, several training synergies have been identified by the two partners in the units involved in the “Integrated Health” project. To go beyond internships, several possibilities of international credit validation have also been identified through several SU/IIT Delhi meetings and discussions over the last two months. Their practical implementation will be a topic at the upcoming workshop dedicated to education (planned in December 2022). To date, the following programs will be involved:

·       A minor in Innovative Public Health Science, SU

As mentioned earlier, SU plans to complement the disciplinary-based BSc degrees with an interdisciplinary focus. Thus, the minor in innovative public health science offers students in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, mechanics, electronics and philosophy the chance to follow a joint program of training courses (420 hours over 2 years) in the field of health innovation (public health, health economics, pharmacology, biomedical engineering, biomedical imaging, bioinformatics and genomics, social sciences, computer science and digital health). The minor also offers some selected students the opportunity to go abroad to validate the last semester of their BSc (international credit validation). In the spirit of single and multidisciplinary education, the plan is to offer selected courses from the BSc/BTech training programs run at CBME, KSBS, DHSS and DBED to SU students in order to validate their BSc at SU. This exchange will boost the existing teaching program and provide students with a strong international experience valuable for their future application to competitive MSc/MTech programs.

 MSc in Engineering for Health, SU

As mentioned in section 4.1.2, the MSc IPS program promotes international semester credit validation in partner universities (semesters 2 or 3). Courses proposed by CBME through its MTech program fulfill those requirements and could be proposed to IPS students interested in medical device design, biomechanics, electronics and biomedical engineering.

·       MSc “From fundamental molecular biosciences to biotherapies”, SU

As for IPS, the MSc “From fundamental molecular biosciences to biotherapies” promotes international semester credit validation in partner universities (semester 2). Several courses offered by KSBS, DBED but also CBME in the fields of stem cell based therapies, screening platforms design, biosensors, quantitative biology, epigenetics in health and diseases, systems biology, chemical biology, recombinant DNA technology, bioprocess engineering and bioinformatics will be offered to SU students interested in biotechnologies, drug discovery and cell therapies. Discussion on IIT Delhi’s teaching program structures will be conducted to identify specific courses which can be proposed in semester 2 of the MSc program.

MSc “International Master Inflammation in Diseases, INFLAMED”, SU

The INFLAMED program is a 2-year, newly launched MSc program. It aims to train high-level specialists in cutting-edge concepts on the role of Inflammation in the etiology of Human Diseases. Its objective is to propose international mobility and international credit validation, and it is actively seeking transnational collaborations. Research activities and training courses proposed by KSBS offer several possibilities, and the partners will explore how to fulfill the specific requirement of the INFLAMED program.

MS (Research) in Biological Sciences (KSBS) and in Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DBEB), IIT Delhi

On demand, SU’s MSc programs will offer theoretical and/or practical courses to KSBS and/or DBEB MS (Research) students who come for 6 months mobility at SU. Students will also be welcome to attend summer schools and events organized by i-Bio, IUIS and partners. This type of sharing will allow students to enrich their research project with new skills but also to open novel collaboration opportunities. Upon validation by MS (Research) programs Committee at IIT Delhi, their value could be included among the 15-20 credits of course works required for graduation. To that end, discussion will be open in the upcoming workshop dedicated to training. 

MTech in Biomedical Engineering (CBME), IIT Delhi

In addition to internships, a specific program offered by IUIS, called Fit4Health, will be open to students from the MTech degree in Biomedical Engineering. This program is dedicated to the new generation of healthcare innovators. Over 8 months, it allows six selected fellows from different backgrounds (engineers, physicians, pharmacists, business developers and managers, etc…) to take part in two multidisciplinary teams in hospital immersion to develop solutions for identified but insufficiently addressed medical needs. Teams take medical, technological, social and economic courses and are supervised by a program manager, clinicians, technology experts, business mentors and experts in “need-led methodology”. Each fellow receives a monthly stipend for participating in the program as well as the French student status.

4.2.2 Developing double degree programs

Sorbonne University has strong expertise in international study programs, especially in the set-up and management of double and multiple degree programs with European and non-European partner institutions. The Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) currently offers 35 international study programs with partner institutions from a wide range of European countries as well as for example Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Japan, Vietnam, China, Madagascar, and Ivory Coast. Among those 35 international programs, 22 are double degree programs and 4 are Erasmus Mundus Joint master’s degrees.

Double degree programs allow students to spend part of their university career abroad and the remaining years at a “home” institution, receiving an equivalent degree from each HEI. Such curricula help students to take full advantage of the resources offered by each institution, including faculty and research opportunities. In contrast to classical study abroad programs, which in general allow students to spend a semester overseas (see above), double degree programs give students the opportunity to spend a year abroad and, more importantly, to become a full member of two university communities. Such dual membership weaves strong and long-term ties between communities. Double degrees also offer cultural and career-related benefits to graduates by giving access to two alumni networks. Therefore, working towards the creation of double degree programs is an objective of the “Integrative Health” project.

During the upcoming workshops on education, the International Project and Partnership Office of SU, together with the IIT Delhi administration, will actively participate with the aim of sharing best practices in the implementation of SU-IIT Delhi double degree programs. A comparative analysis of national and local regulations of both countries and institutions on double degree programs will be presented during the initial workshop and will allow us to anticipate potential hurdles. The International Project Officers will support the professors involved in the following MSc programs to set-up the specific Franco-Indian cooperation agreements and the follow-up.

·       MSc “International Master in Neurodegenerative Diseases, iMIND”

As mentioned in section 4.1.2, iMIND is interested in developing international partnerships. In particular, iMIND will offer a for-credit semester abroad for SU students. Courses proposed by DHSS through its MSc program in Cognitive Science as well as by KSBS and DBEB fulfill those requirements. However, we are also planning to move forward with the creation of a double MSc degree on the model of the iMOV program with UNAM and many other programs implemented by SU. Students from DHSS and KSBS doing their first year at IIT Delhi might indeed join the iMIND program for their second year. Thus, any student studying for at least two semesters in each institution (SU and IIT Delhi), during the two-year time of the MSc program, will receive two MSc degrees, one from each university.

·       MSc “International Master in Physics for Biologists”

In 2022, the BMC MSc program at SU launched a first-year master program dedicated to the interdisciplinary interface between biology and physics. Its objective is to train students in biology in the key concepts, methods and technologies of physics alongside molecular and cellular biology with particular attention to quantitative approaches. All courses are in English. The program consists of course work, practical applications, and a 2- month internship in a laboratory. Thanks to the broad offer and expertise at KSBS, DBEB and CBME in the fields of physics for biology, courses will be offered to SU students to fulfill their third semester. The final objective will be to move towards the creation of a double MSc program in the field of Physics for biologists.

4.2.3 Strengthening academic partnerships

To pursue the deployment of common actions in both education and research, two common IIT Delhi/SU advisory committees will be established (see section 5). They will include representatives from the research and education departments involved in action 1. A call for new members will be launched in January 2023 in both institutions. Their role will be to propose novel axes of collaborations and actions to be conducted to the steering committee. This will lead to new calls for expressions of interest and collaborative projects. Selected research and training teams will be invited to the yearly workshops dedicated to research or education innovation, planned for December 2023. Short-term missions and visiting professorship positions will then be offered to researchers and faculty to strengthen their collaborative work. Gradually, committees will welcome faculty and researchers from disciplines not primarily involved in the “Integrative Health” project to ensure the deployment of action 3 (see section 4.3).

4.2.4 Strengthening partnerships with the economic sector

Both institutions cultivate very strong partnerships with the economic sector and industrial companies involved in Health innovation such as Sanofi, Pierre Fabre, Essilor, L’Oréal, Air Liquide, Pfizer, Thales, Siemens, Microsoft, Delphine Diagnostics, and Unilever, amongst others. Start-up incubators as well as dedicated programs for supporting innovation have been launched at IIT Delhi, SU and partners. Both institutions run specific programs to develop, test and accelerate transfer of Health Tech innovations. Programs include the MedTech Product Development Acceleration Gateway of India at IIT Delhi for the development of medical devices and technology and Autonomia at SU, a real-life research center, supported by “Région Ile-de-France”. They have also launched educational programs dedicated to Health innovation -- ID4Health, Fit4Health programs at IUIS; Brain to Market Summer School at Paris Brain Institute; School of International Biodesign at IIT Delhi with AIIMS.

In order to strengthen further our partnerships with the economic sector and to develop novel opportunities in terms of market access, we will organize a joint Summer School dedicated to Health innovation and entrepreneurship. This specific program will allow for the development of a common culture and better knowledge of the Indian and French/European ecosystems of Health innovation -- public health challenges, regulatory affairs, clinical trial, intellectual property and patent protection, leverage of public and private funding. The Summer School will be held on a rotating basis at SU and IIT Delhi and will include site visits, lectures, seminars, and intercultural activities. B2B meetings and local mentorships will be proposed to healthcare innovators. For students and young researchers, a mixed French/Indian interdisciplinary team challenge will be organized. Participants will work to identify health challenges, in dialogue with target groups (public, caregivers and/or patient) from both countries. Teams will then plan, implement and apply solutions with the support of scientific and industrial mentors.

4.3 Action III: Going beyond life science for health

Our shared ambition is to develop a long-term and inclusive partnership dedicated to the creation of an interdisciplinary and transversal Franco-Indian campus fostering collective contribution to societal and medical challenges we will all face in the coming years and decade. To do so, our desire is to move forward to create a fully integrated campus in which all components and structures of IIT Delhi and Sorbonne University will be invited to participate and collaborate. This ambition is important since it has defined our choice of partnership. IIT Delhi and Sorbonne University indeed thrive on a multidisciplinary structure ranging from Humanities to Medicine passing through Science and Engineering. Therefore, and in order to inform our communities and to define which units would be willing to participate in the expansion phase of our joint campus, a dedicated workshop will be organized and financed in the first semester of 2023 by the international relations divisions of IIT Delhi and Sorbonne University. Several synergies have already been identified and will span beyond life science to bring novel insights for tackling health issues but also beyond life sciences and Health to address unmet societal and technological challenges.

4.3.1 Going beyond life science

Today, Health issues are of polymorphic nature and require a call for efficient and cost-conscious contributions of novel disciplines. To respond to the epidemiological and societal challenges our population and government will face in the coming years, the “Integrated Health” project will promote the emergence of a dedicated, inclusive and multidisciplinary research community within our two institutions. Several connections and/or expressions of interest have already arisen from Humanities to Electronics passing through Computer Sciences.

The department of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) of IIT Delhi, which runs the MSc program in cognitive science (see section 4.1.2), has indeed initiated contacts with the Biomedical Humanities initiative (iHBM) as well as with the University of Patients of SU. DHSS approach is common to iHBM at SU, which is part of the multidisciplinary institutes and initiatives supported by Alliance Sorbonne Université, financed through IDEX funding, to combine competencies from various disciplines to health issues and to support interdisciplinary research in the field of biomedical humanities (Politics, Literature, Philosophy, Sociology, Medicine, Psychology). Both divisions welcome collaboration in the form of co-supervision, workshops, student and faculty exchange. In that context, DHSS will organize an annual interdisciplinary workshop/summer school with SU on Care, Psychoanalysis and Medical Humanities and/or on Health and Humanities. Groundwork for it is already being prepared jointly between Dr. Divya Dwivedi at DHSS-IIT Delhi and Prof. Cynthia Fleury (who has been engaged in creating chaire Humanités et santé at The Patients' University, SU). iHBM will be part of this project and will provide financial support. Moreover, iHBM will dedicate a PhD fellowship on a project co- supervised by laboratories from both institutions.

The department of Electrical Engineering (DEE) at IIT Delhi also responded to the call for expressions of interest launched in August 2022. DEE develops applications in bio-informatics, biosignal acquisition and analysis, drug discovery as well as AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot), VLSI (Very Large-Scale Integration) and ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) for biomedical applications. This has led its members to design Chips for microcapsule endoscopy, 3D printed portable mass spectrometer, 3D printed ionizer, constructing RNA thermometers, developing novel NLP (Natural Language Processing) methods for genomics and proposing AI/ML (artificial intelligence / machine learning) approaches for mental health assessment and management. To date, 10 of its faculty members would like to develop collaboration with SU.

Finally, several MSc degrees at SU and their associated laboratories have shown interest for developing research and education collaboration with IIT Delhi departments. We can mention the MSc programs in “Digital Health”, “Image processing and analysis, computer vision and computer graphics” and “Bio-Informatics & Modeling”.

4.3.2 Going beyond life science and health

Thanks to the multitasking nature of researchers and faculty, contacts have been established between members of the laboratory of “Génie Electrique et Electronique de Paris” (GEEPS) at SU and the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics (CARE) at IIT Delhi. Groundwork for collaborating on communicating devices and antennas is already ongoing between Dr. Guido Valerio at SU and Dr. Ananjan Basu and Dr. Mahesh Abegaonkar at IIT Delhi. This connection also opens opportunities for the MSc program on “Waves and Devices for Advanced Wireless Communication Systems” at SU, which is headed by Dr. Guido Valerio.

Finally, several other synergies going beyond the life science for health core project will be explored in the fields of climate change, computer science, quantum physics, civil engineering, chemical engineering and artificial intelligence.

5. Overview and the Global Impact of the Project

The benefits of the Sorbonne University-IIT-Delhi Integrated Health project will be numerous. Firstly, the project will benefit Franco-Indian bilateral cooperation in higher education and research by creating a strong and sustainable alliance between two HEIs, which are highly respected in their home countries and around the world. The project will be a showcase for quality, high-level Franco-Indian cooperation. The project also has the potential to become an emblematic example of cutting-edge transnational cooperation that responds to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 3, 4, and 5.

For the partner HEIs, the project will accelerate the internationalization of existing programs and create new ones with international components and requirements. Numerous opportunities for faculty, students, and staff to experience another country, language, and culture will be initiated. Collaborations will be created that may never have been without the catalyst and support provided by this government initiative.

Industry partnerships will be signed to provide internships and permanent employment for students and graduates. Industry collaboration may also help shape academic programs to ensure they are in line with market needs. Companies will also benefit from and contribute to future research collaborations emanating from the partnership through the establishment of endowed chairs, for example.

Students will have new opportunities to study abroad and carry out research in another country with all the benefits that this implies: language training, cultural awareness, and new pedagogical models.

The academic and research programs will admit students regardless of race, color, gender, or financial means. Care will be taken to promote and ensure the participation of minorities, underprivileged, handicapped, and those with other special needs or requirements.