Jan. 19, 2007 — Alcoa announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with India’s Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) to partner in collaborative research projects that address critical global issues such as energy efficiency, alternative and renewable energy sources, environmental technologies as well as multi-material engineered solutions.

The MOU establishes the CSIR/Alcoa Leadership Innovation Council that will steer and support innovations that generate value for both organizations.

“CSIR is happy to partner with Alcoa on challenging R&D activities that will help make tomorrow’s world better,” said Director General R.A. Mashelkar of CSIR in a prepared statement. “We are looking forward to connecting researchers with common purposes and common goals around innovation.”

Both CSIR and Alcoa will each have four standing members on the council, which will be co-chaired by Swaminathan Sivaram, director of the National Chemistry Laboratory of CSIR, and Ashok Nayak, director of external innovations and technology strategy at Alcoa.

Some of the areas of initial focus include energy innovations to ensure long-term sustainability of operations, environmental innovations that use nanotechnology and biotechnology to convert waste to products, packaging innovations that provide next-generation solutions to customers, and multi-material engineered solutions for a number of markets.