UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to visit India for the first time next week, and in focus during his Mumbai visit will be the topics of quantum computing and biotechnology.
A research tie-up between Imperial College, London, and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, will attempt to harness quantum computing and biotechnology to help farmers grow stronger crops that are more resilient to climate change. The project will be a part of the India-UK Technology Security Initiative (TSI) that was signed last year.
The India-UK TSI is scheduled to be at the top of the agenda when Starmer joins Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Global Fintech Fest (GFF) 2025, starting in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Imperial College London President, Professor Hugh Brady, will be among the members of the prime ministerial delegation headed for Mumbai on Starmer’s first visit to India as UK PM.
A team led by Dr. Po-Heng (Henry) Lee from Imperial College, and Dr. Indrajit Chakraborty IIT Bombay is already leveraging quantum computing to model the complex interactions between plants and bacteria in the soil. The project’s mission is to cultivate healthier soil microbes and unlock new strategies for protecting crops in arid and climate-vulnerable regions.
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“This collaboration brings together IIT Bombay’s expertise in microbial ecology and genomics with Imperial’s strengths in bioinformatics and quantum computing simulation,” said Dr. Lee, adding that it “paves the way for quantum technologies to address urgent challenges in global food security and climate resilience.”
With a better understanding of how plants and helpful bacteria “talk” to each other, researchers hope that they can boost natural processes to make crops grow better and more resilient against drought and extreme weather.
While traditional computing methods are unable to process the intricate interactions between plants and bacteria, researchers hope to use methods like simulating gene regulation and microbial signaling to develop new approaches for enhancing soil health and crop productivity, particularly in arid soils.
“By combining our expertise in microbial ecology, we are opening new frontiers in sustainable agriculture. This partnership not only deepens our understanding of plant-microbe interactions but also demonstrates how international collaboration can drive innovative solutions to climate challenges faced by communities worldwide,” said Dr. Chakraborty.
The project focuses on a special plant chemical called ‘strigolactone’ that acts as a messenger to help plants and bacteria share information and work together. The scientists will also investigate how to add biochar, a type of charcoal, to soil to help make these partnerships stronger.
Experimental work at IIT Bombay will delve into how synthetic strigolactones influence plant growth and microbial behaviour, while Imperial’s team is developing quantum circuit models to simulate microbial communication.
Besides strengthening bilateral research ties and harnessing the technology and knowledge of both countries at the intersection of quantum computing and biotechnology, the collaborative project supports up to 25 joint research projects every year between Imperial and partners in India in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), quantum science, biotech and clean energy.
It is funded by the India Connect Fund, a key initiative of the university’s new science hub in Bengaluru, ‘Imperial Global India’.
Imperial College London is the world’s second-ranked university. It established its Bengaluru hub recently to strengthen further such scientific and innovation partnerships between both countries. It has applied for Imperial Global India to be established as a liaison office, pending relevant regulatory approvals.
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