Australian High Commission
New Delhi
India, Bhutan

Australia-India IT Security Conference in Brisbane

ARCHIVED MEDIA RELEASE

PA/12/2007                                                                                           9 July 2007

Australia-India IT Security Conference in Brisbane

Brisbane, Australia, will host the third Australia-India Conference on Information Technology Security on 9-10 July.

The conference, the third in the series of IT Security Workshops that Australia and India have been organising, will be on the theme “The Growing Challenge for Critical National Infrastructure” and is being held at the Queensland University of Technology. The first two meetings were held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai.

“Education and research are striking aspects of the India-Australia relationship. The linkages are increasing by the month as are collaborative research ventures and exchanges of staff and students. The past 12 months saw close to 40,000 enrolments of Indian students in Australian schools, colleges, institutes and universities,” said the Australian High Commissioner to India, Mr John McCarthy.

“The education and research relationship is now poised to reach new levels through the availability of additional funding and opportunities for collaborative research and exchange of researchers. These opportunities emerged from the visit by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, to India in March 2006. In addition to the expanded Australian Scholarship Scheme, the Australia India Strategic Research Fund has greatly enhanced the bilateral relations,” said the High Commissioner.

“The IT security conferences are a part of Australia’s efforts to strengthen and enrich the education and research relationship between the two countries,” added Mr McCarthy.

“Through a series of seminars and workshops in topical areas of priority, we have sought to profile Australia’s excellence in research and innovation. One theme of these has been research, development and innovation in the field of IT Security,” said Professor John Webb, Counsellor (Education, Science and Training), Australian High Commission.

For additional information, please contact Ms Shweta Datt, Science Specialist, on 011 4149 4312.

Australian Scholarships

The Australian Government offers a variety of awards that can support research studies and exchanges, faculty exchanges and professional development under the Australian Scholarships Program. With respect to research collaboration and exchanges between India and Australia, the Leadership Awards ( administered by the Australian Government’s Agency, AusAID and the Endeavour Awards ( administered by the Department of Education, Science and Training, DEST) are particularly relevant.

The website is: www.australianscholarships.gov.au

The Endeavour Programme is an Australian government initiative, bringing together under one umbrella all of the Department of Education, Science and Training’s international scholarships. The objective is to establish the Endeavour awards as a prestigious scholarship programme that showcase the excellence of Australia’s education and research sector. The awards will enable scholars and professionals to undertake study, research or professional development in Australia and allow Australians to do the same abroad. This latter aspect is noteworthy, since the Awards enable Australians to come to India for research and related professional activities. These Awards offer new opportunities for fully-funded exchange visits that can do much for stimulating research cooperation between research groups in Australia and India.

Of particular interest to the research communities are the Endeavour Postgraduate Awards, Research Fellowships and Executive Awards. The applications for these are submitted on-line to DEST in Canberra.

The Endeavour Postgraduate Awards provide full financial support for international students for up to 3 years to undertake a postgraduate qualification at a Masters or PhD level either by coursework or research in any field of study in Australia

The Endeavour Research Fellowships enable top rate Indian researchers to carry out short-term (4-6 months) postgraduate or post-doctoral research in Australia in any field of study, and for Australians to do the same in India

The Endeavour Executive Awards allow high achieving professionals from India in government, business, and industry or education sector to undertake a professional development opportunity for up to 4 months at a counterpart institution/organisation in Australia, and for Australians to do the same in India.