Bilateral Olympics planning, a film on an Australian stuntwoman in Indian films, and research into drought-resistant crops are just some of the projects sharing in $10 million under the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR) Maitri grants and scholarships scheme.
One of the broadest single rounds of Australia-India funding to date, with 22 grants, 15 scholarships and four fellowships, the funding covers projects across sport, tourism, clean energy, agribusiness, education, diaspora engagement and the arts.
AT A GLANCE:
- $10 million awarded to 41 recipients
- The largest single grant went to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
- 12 Australian universities are sharing over $4 million in Maitri Scholarships
- Four Maitri fellows named: Ms Nancy Gupta, Kim Heriot-Darragh, Mr Afaq Hussain, Ms Nikita Singla
Clean energy, sport, and arts big winners in grants
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia received the largest single grant of $400,000 for its ‘Fearless Nadia Legacy’ project documenting the Australian-born stunt actress who starred in early Indian cinema.
Mumbai-based poetry collective Kommune will return to Adelaide Fringe with ‘Spoken without borders’, a two-year artist development program facilitating Hindi-English works at the southern hemisphere’s biggest fringe festival.
Jo O’Callaghan, Executive Director, Programmes and Development at Adelaide Fringe, is excited to welcome back the collective, who previously won an award for ‘We Belong’.
“We’ve seen Adelaide Fringe audiences respond with amazing positivity to Indian-themed works in recent years,” she said.
“India has one of the world’s most exciting storytelling cultures, and this project creates a practical bridge between artists and audiences in both countries.”
Meanwhile, the University of Sydney’s Conservatorium of Music will run a three-year project sending students to learn at Bengaluru’s Subramaniam Academy of Performing Arts (SaPa), a project receiving $180,000.
Amongst the sport recipients was the $300,000 for the University of Technology Sydney’s ‘Olympic Legacies and Urban Futures’ project, particularly relevant as India bid for hosting rights of the 2036 games, buoyed on by Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Australian visit.
“This two-year initiative is an exciting opportunity to share Australian experience from Sydney, the Gold Coast and preparations for Brisbane 2032, while learning from India’s rapidly evolving urban and sporting landscape,” says Dyan Currie AM, Brisbane 2032 Olympics lead, about the project.
Among the four clean energy recipients was the University of Adelaide’s Institute for International Trade, who are excited to deliver insights for a priority sector.
“Steel is one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise, and Australia and India sit at opposite ends of a value chain that will shape whether that transition succeeds. Australia is a major supplier of iron ore; India is one of the world’s fastest-growing steel producers,” they said in an online statement.
“This project asks how trade and industrial policy can support a lower-emissions iron and steel trade between the two countries, and what a genuine partnership on that agenda could look like.”
Meanwhile, Griffith University received $250,000 for a community-based media project connecting the Malayali and Gujarati communities in India and Australia.
“The exchanges will deepen cross-cultural understanding and skills-development for community-based media practitioners and enhance transnational literacy,” said Dr Bridget Backhaus, project lead and journalism academic at Griffith University.
Scholarships see agribusiness and clean energy rewarded
On the scholarships side, 15 recipients were awarded a combined $4,462,000, with agribusiness and clean energy accounting for 13 places.
The University of New England will continue their research into soil carbon and climate resistant crops with their two agribusiness grants and one clean energy grant, engaging three Indian-origin doctoral students.
Dr Priyakant Sinha, one of the researcher looking at integrating solar energy into agriculture, is excited to work with the emerging researchers.
“Coming from a developing country, I had always dreamt of advancing my research career in Australia,” he said.
“I see similar opportunities for these students, including the chance to participate in events organised by CAIR and DFAT to boost their profiles and networks.”
Bengaluru based researcher Sagar Rajopadhye will move to Melbourne after receiving a $349,124 Maitri Scholarship for his project ‘Place-Based Heat-Health Risk Reduction and Planning Tools for Australian and Indian Cities’.
“My work over the next few years will focus on a question that’s becoming increasingly urgent for cities in both Australia and India: how can urban design and planning better protect people from extreme heat,” Rajopadhye said online.
Other recipients include Bhagat Singh of Southern Cross University, researching phosphorus use efficiency in rice, and Shantanu Singh of Griffith University, who received $366,000 to work on ultra-fast EV charging technology. Sodium-ion battery development at UNSW, and quantum network algorithms at Curtin University was also funded.
Separately, four researchers have been named 2025-26 Maitri Fellows.
Nancy Gupta of the Centre for Social and Economic Progress will examine Australia-India cooperation on green iron and steel.
Nikita Singla, a trade facilitation consultant to the World Bank, will research a proposed Australia-India Future-Ready Ports Framework.
Afaq Hussain of UNSW will assess trade facilitation for an India-Australia critical minerals partnership, while Kim Heriot-Darragh of the Australia India Institute will study the two countries’ roles in setting rules and norms in the Indian Ocean.
“We are delighted that Kim has been selected as an outgoing Australian Fellow, reflecting the growing importance of two-way research partnerships between Australia and India,” the Australia India institute said.
The 2025-26 Maitri Grant Program combines what was previously the separate Maitri Cultural Partnerships grants program and Maitri Research Grants program.
Aimed at building long-term institutional and people-to-people links, this round’s funding follows a pattern of previous cycles in prioritising arts, clean energy and agribusiness research.
The full list of recipients of Maitri Grants 2025-2026 is visible on the Centre for Australia India Relations website here
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