The R&D Club has been created in 2012 at the initiative of the Science and Technology Department of the French Embassy. It aims to gather the representatives of French companies having research activity in India or looking for solutions to solve issues, accelerate processes or develop new products.

More than 25 R&D centres of French companies are found in India, covering a wide range of domains. Some companies simply carry out research activities in collaboration with Indian institutions, in the absence of formal R&D centres.

Initially organized at the Pan India level, the R&D Club has been enriched with a new format as Indo-French Innovation Network. IFIN format intends to lead the discussion deeper into its technical aspect. To do so, 2 main topics have been identified: Bio-Health-Agro and Industry 4.0. Each session gathers 15 to 25 large companies and is co-organized with an Academic partner. To make IFIN as interactive as possible each session is made of roundtables (breakout rooms) in an even smaller format. Last but not least, start-ups and incubators are also taking part in IFIN sessions. Such format allows interactions between large companies academia and start-ups to take place.

R&D Club – IFIN also offers an opportunity to interact with the French Embassy over the existing tools: identification of specific curriculum in France, student mobility, CEFIPRA Industry-Academia Research and Development Programme…

Under the new IFIN format, 2 to 3 meetings are organized every year for each topic Bio-Health-Agro and Industry 4.0. This comes as an extension of the 14 meetings which have already taken place so far at the Pan-India level.