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NIT Rourkela bags Rs 87.24 lakh SPARC grant to drive innovation in agri-food systems
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Saturday, 27 December, 2025, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Bengaluru
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National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) has secured a high-value research project worth Rs 87.24 lakh SPARC Grant to spearhead innovation in Agri-Food Systems. This stands as one of the two research projects under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, with a total sanctioned funding of over Rs 1.82 crore. The other is for wearable medical device.Each project has a duration of two years.
SPARC is a national initiative aimed at strengthening India’s research ecosystem by promoting structured collaboration between Indian higher education institutions and leading global universities, enabling joint research, academic exchange, and research capacity building in identified priority areas.
The project, “Novel Disruptive Technology: Design and Development of Smart and Sustainable Technology for Agri-Food Systems” for which it received a grant of Rs 87.24 lakh, is led by Dr. Madhuresh Dwivedi, Associate Professor, Department of Food Process Engineering, as PI, with Prof. Rama Chandra Pradhan, Professor, Department of Food Process Engineering, as Co-PI.
The international collaboration involves Dr. Anubhav Pratap Singh, Foreign PI from The University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada, and Dr. Anika Singh, Foreign Co-PI affiliated with UBC, Canada, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, Canada.
The objective of this project aims to develop a simple, rapid, and non-destructive technology for assessing the quality and safety of agri-food products, without cutting, cooking, or chemically testing them. Scientists from NIT Rourkela will be collaborating with foreign researchers to create a smart sensing system that uses mild electrical signals to evaluate food quality, similar in principle to a medical scan, but applied to food products.
The technology is expected to enable real-time detection of freshness, spoilage, and quality variations across farms, markets, and food processing units. By making food testing quicker, more reliable, and field-deployable, the project seeks to improve food safety, reduce wastage, and support farmers, food processors, and consumers, particularly in resource-limited environments.
The project highlights NIT Rourkela’s growing engagement in high-impact international research collaborations and application-oriented research aimed at delivering tangible societal outcomes, the communication note stated.
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