London (PTI): The UK on Tuesday awarded six million poundsfor carrying out research work in various fields like food and water security and healthcare, to three major collaborations with Indian institutes.

The cooperations, jointly funded by the Research Council, UK (RCUK) and the Department of Science and Technology, India (DST), are a part of the UK's 12 million-pound funding to forge links with universities in India, China and the US.

Speaking on the occasion, Lord Drayson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation, said: "The RCUK Science Bridges Awards are an excellent example of how the UK is encouraging research which has both strong international collaborations and close links with business."

"By working with international partners we can benefit from their expertise and get more value from our investment in the UK's world class research community," Drayson added.

As part of the alliance, a 3 million pound grant has been made to Aston University and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi for a period of three years.

The project aims to deliver sustainable decentralised bio-energy for both the developed and developing world, an official release said.

An amount of 1.5 million pound, for four years, has been awarded to the University of Leeds, the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

This venture aims to enhance existing interactions to exploit and develop advances in biotechnology applicable in an agricultural context.

The initiative will also facilitate a two-way interaction between Indian and UK basic science and applied agriculture in India.

A two-year grant of 1.5 million pound has been made to the University of Nottingham, the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and the IIT, Kanpur.

The three partners aim to create a step-change in collaborative innovation in target identification, drug discovery, drug delivery and manufacturing.

They will build on existing cooperations with the goal of producing clinical and commercial benefits from patent protected research, the release said.

"I am delighted that the DST and the RCUK have come together on this major initiative and have been able to review and support this joint venture which is directly in line with the policies and priorities of DST," the release quoted Dr Venkatesh Rao Aiyagari, Head and Adviser Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC), DST as saying.

"I wish the new collaborations every success in the future," he said.