National Economic Forum, Canadian university sign pact to advance education, research ties

Cape Breton University CBU and the National Economic Forum NEF entered into a non-commercial Service and Cooperation Agreement to support CBUs India engagements, deepen institutional linkages and strengthen higher education collaboration between India and Canada, it said.

A leading public university of Canada has entered into an agreement with a Delhi-based institutional platform to work towards advancing student mobility, faculty exchange and research and knowledge collaboration, according to an official statement. Cape Breton University (CBU) and the National Economic Forum (NEF) entered into a ''non-commercial Service and Cooperation Agreement'' to support CBU's India engagements, deepen institutional linkages and strengthen higher education collaboration between India and Canada, it said. The MoU was signed between David C Dingwall, President and Vice-Chancellor, Cape Breton University, and Jagdip Rana, Executive Director, National Economic Forum, during a high-level delegation visit to India. The agreement establishes NEF as the official convening partner for CBU in India, facilitating structured engagements with stakeholders across central and state governments and leading academic institutions, said the statement issued on April 27. ''This partnership will promote a collaboration between the two institutes to work towards advancing key areas such as student mobility, faculty exchange, institutional partnerships, along with research and knowledge collaboration,'' it said. NEF is an independent institutional platform engaged in policy dialogue, convening, and stakeholder engagement across government, academia, and the private sector in India and internationally. Designed to enable focused, protocol-aligned dialogue and strengthen institutional linkages, the MoU entrusts NEF to ''lead stakeholder mapping, outreach facilitation, and engagement structuring,'' it added. This would open new opportunities to curate roundtables and institutional interactions, to enable meaningful and outcome-driven engagements, for CBU, driving deeper and more strategic engagements in India, the statement said. ''India stands out as a priority geography for Cape Breton University, given the scale, ambition, and evolving strengths of its higher education ecosystem,'' Dingwall was quoted as saying in the statement. ''This partnership provides a focussed platform to deepen our engagement through meaningful institutional collaborations, expanded student pathways, and research partnerships aligned with shared global priorities, while building long-term academic linkages that deliver value for both countries,'' Dingwall said. The agreement is a stepping stone towards longer-term collaboration initiatives, including a framework for joint research programmes, academic exchanges, and knowledge partnerships aligned with shared priorities, contributing to the development of a more robust and future-oriented India–Canada higher education collaboration, the statement said.