Singapore: The Australian Academy of Science has launched an Australia-India Fellowship program to enable Australian scientists to work with leading Indian research institutions in different areas, including biotechnology.

The fellowships are open to Australian researchers from the public, not-for-profit and commercial sectors to support research in any field of natural science and to initiate or consolidate collaboration with cutting-edge Indian host organisations.

The Australia-India Early Career and Senior Visiting Fellowships are supported by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education through the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, Australia's largest fund dedicated to bilateral research with any country.

This $1 million fellowship scheme will allow Australian scientists to access up to $52,500 for early career researchers and $8,500 for senior visiting fellows.

"Science and technology are particularly promising areas for collaboration between Australia and India. "Our scientific communities have complementary strengths and shared interests in a range of areas, including agriculture, biotechnology, renewable energy and information and communications technology," said Professor Andrew Holmes, foreign secretary of the Australian Academy of Science.