Amritsar varsity advances global engagement, collaborates with Eurasia-Pacific UNINET

Karamjeet Singh, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar, announced the institution’s collaboration with the prestigious Eurasia-Pacific UNINET (EPU) to establish GNDU’s global prominence. EPU is a renowned platform fostering academic cooperation among over 200 universities worldwide. It facilitates research funding, faculty exchange programmes, technical assistance, and collaborative publications, while organising impactful conferences to exchange knowledge and ideas.

Karamjeet Singh nominated professor Amit Kauts as its representative to EPU. At the recent EPU General Assembly, Kauts was elected as the South Asia Representative on the International Board. Other elected representatives include Erdenestseg Bat-Erdene (Mongolian National University of Art and Culture), Prof Yong Yuan (Tongji University, Shanghai), and Prof Akylberk Chymyrov (Kyrgyz State Technical University, Bishkek).

EPU operates through two key centres: the Asia China Tunnel and Underground Engineering Research Centre, hosted by Tongji University, China, and the Austria-Central Asia Centre for Geographic Information Science, hosted by Kyrgyz University. The EPU General Assembly selects an international board to oversee its initiatives and ensure seamless implementation of its programmes.

The VC emphasised that this association would strengthen GNDU’s partnerships with South Asian and Austrian universities, promoting staff exchange programmes, collaborative research and joint publications to enhance the university’s global research impact and citation metrics.

Kauts shared details of his ongoing collaborations with Prof Shahnawaz of Salzburg University, Austria. Together, they have submitted a multi-country, multi-partner project for EPU funding, with GNDU as a key partner institution alongside Osh State University, Kyrgyzstan, and Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization, Uzbekistan. “The objective would be to work on multiple projects, in collaboration with five to six educational institutions across three countries. The core areas would be sustainability, climate change and startup ecosystems. Under this collaboration, a staff mobility project has already been approved, and Shahnawaz is scheduled to visit GNDU in February to conduct a workshop on climate and sustainability. I will be travelling to Salzburg University for the same,” said Kauts.