Prof. Vimal Chandra Srivastava, Dean of International Relations at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (Vice-President of the Heritage Network), recently participated in the 8th Heritage Network General Assembly held on May 13–15, 2025, at TU Dresden, Germany. The event brought together representatives from leading universities across Europe and India to strengthen academic cooperation and shape the future of global education in engineering and technology.
The opening ceremony featured welcome remarks by Prof. Ronald Tetzlaff, Chief Officer for Technology Transfer and Internationalization at TU Dresden, followed by addresses from Prof. Teresa Zielińska, President of the Heritage Network, and Prof. Srivastava in his capacity as Vice-President of the Heritage Network. In his address, Prof. Srivastava emphasized the importance of shared academic values and the need to foster deeper collaborations that promote innovation, sustainability, and global citizenship among engineering institutions.
A keynote lecture titled “Importance of the Heritage Network for Future Challenges” was delivered by Prof. Ercan Altinsoy of TU Dresden, emphasizing the network’s role in addressing global academic and technological challenges. Prof. Vimal Chandra Srivastava gave a talk entitled “Recent Initiatives of the Government of India towards Sustainability”.
The assembly also included presentations and discussions on initiatives such as transCampus, the ABCD Centre, and the UNU Hub, with contributions from Prof. Jürgen Stamm of TU Dresden. These sessions highlighted collaborative opportunities in sustainability, innovation, and interdisciplinary research.
Institutions across India, including several IITs, actively participated in this collaborative event, further underscoring the strength of the Indo-European academic alliance. The participating Universities from Europe includes Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany; Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France; Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden; Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin), Ireland; Warsaw University of Technology (WUT), Poland; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Universidad de Sevilla, Spain; University of Patras, Greece, etc.
The event marked a significant step in reinforcing Indo-European academic ties and advancing the Heritage Network’s mission of fostering excellence in higher education and research.
