Forging US-India collaboration through materials science: RISING Center at Rice marks 1-year milestone

HOUSTON – (July 17, 2025) – Rice University hosted a one-year review meeting for the International Research Innovation in Nanotechnology, or RISING, Center, a partnership accelerating U.S.-India collaboration in advanced materials and defense-related technologies.

The event brought together leaders from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), India’s Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO), and academic and government partners to assess progress and discuss strategic next steps.

The RISING Center — a four-way partnership between Rice, AFRL, DRDO and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur) — was launched in 2024 to accelerate joint development of advanced nanomaterials for defense and high-performance technologies. The partnership aligns with U.S. strategic goals in the Indo-Pacific region and India’s efforts to expand its role in semiconductor and emerging technology development.

Caroline Levander, Rice’s vice president for global, noted in her opening remarks that the partnership builds on the university’s long-term strategic engagement with India and has grown alongside the launch of Rice Global India in Bengaluru last year.

“This is about building our global impact and reputation,” Levander said. “India is crucial to our efforts … and Rice’s longstanding collaboration with IIT Kanpur and our growing network of academic and innovation partners across India will help this center reach its full potential.”

The RISING Center’s research activities span five technical areas identified by an AFRL working group focusing on low-cost nanomanufacturing technology in coordination with the center’s participating institutions. Current projects include thin-film growth for low-cost semiconductors, device fabrication and integration, and materials suitable for flexible electronics and energy harvesting. Each project brings together U.S. and Indian scientists with key involvement from AFRL’s directorates and leading academic institutions including Rice, University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University and Northeastern University.

“This is a pilot effort — AFRL has not done something like this before,” said Ajit Roy, principal materials research engineer with AFRL and a key leader of the center. “The skills and partnerships among Rice, IITs and DRDO are essential for the center’s success. The center’s goal is not stopping at ideation and innovation but driving through the R&D necessary to demonstrate higher technology readiness.”

Roy emphasized that international collaboration is increasingly essential in defense research, particularly as emerging technologies grow more complex and face critical barriers such as limited resources of necessary raw materials like rare earth minerals. He identified workforce development and trusted relationships as foundational to the center’s mission.

“The future of aerospace will be as unrecognizable as the early Wright Flyer and Goddard’s rockets are from today’s F-47 and Starship,” said Richard Vaia, chief scientist with the AFRL materials and manufacturing directorate. “Material innovations like novel aluminum casting and the judicious selection of natural materials propelled these early aviation pioneers. The crucial role of materials and manufacturing for this unknown future will remain unchanged — new materials and processes will be the essential ingredient that enables the future machines to push the performance envelope. The RISING Center’s international collaboration will facilitate such a performance push.”

From India’s side, Vijayabaskar Narayanamurthy, adviser for defense technology at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C., highlighted the two countries’ history of bilateral engagement under the U.S.-India Major Defense Partnership Framework. He noted that this high-level agreement supports bilateral mechanisms like the Joint Technical Group (JTG), the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI), the India-U.S. Defense Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) and the recently announced Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance (ASIA) Initiative — all of which offer pathways for expanding bilateral research and development efforts.

“Achieving all research outcomes solely by an individual country or individual group is not going to see major milestones,” Narayanamurthy said. “India and the U.S. share similar values, and working together, we can achieve larger outcomes that benefit both countries and the globe.”

Pulickel Ajayan, Rice’s Benjamin M. and Mary Greenwood Anderson Professor of Engineering and RISING Center faculty lead, described the center as a platform for building relationships across institutions and countries “to create something unique and impactful.” He gave an overview of some of the center’s achievements over the past year and reaffirmed the initiative’s goal of building a scalable, sustainable pipeline from discovery to application.

“The RISING Center is really a force multiplier,” said Ajayan, who also leads a world-class diamond materials research lab at Rice established with support from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the Army Research Office. “This kind of structure allows collaboration in multiple ways so that there is a flow of personnel trained in key technologies that will be beneficial to defense efforts on both sides.”

RISING teams and collaborators are developing low-temperature methods for growing and integrating 2D materials at scale — a key step toward thermally stable, manufacturable electronics. These include in situ growth methods for atomically thin materials and novel synthesis pathways to support printed and flexible electronics.

“The real goal is not just publications,” Ajayan said. “This could evolve into a foundrylike prototype environment for 2D materials — an ecosystem that industry can tap into.”

The RISING Center’s location at Rice reflects the university’s longstanding global leadership in materials science and engineering. From foundational research in carbon nanotechnology — including Nobel Prize-winning work on fullerenes — to ongoing advances in 2D materials, Rice has consistently played a central role in materials innovation. Its growing engagement with Indian institutions builds on that foundation and supports the center’s workforce development focus.

Rice first partnered with IIT Kanpur in 2020, followed by a 2023 strategic collaboration agreement with the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. Most recently, Rice has welcomed visiting researchers from other IITs on RISING-related projects on campus.

These partnerships — along with new Rice Global India initiatives — reflect the university’s sustained commitment to deepening research and education exchanges across India and internationally. In the past three years, Rice has hosted more than two dozen graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from India, supported through jointly funded projects and programs such as the Mehta Rice Engineering Scholars.

Rice’s support for the RISING Center aligns directly with its strategic plan, Momentous: Personalized Scale for Global Impact, which emphasizes “forging dynamic collaborations with strategic partners” across the world.

As part of this vision, Vinod Veedu, assistant vice president for research, leads Rice’s expanding network of defense research partnerships. Veedu, who helped coordinate the RISING Center’s one-year review meeting, is working to position Rice as a long-term partner in global defense innovation by leveraging its core research strengths.

“The AFRL-supported RISING Center exemplifies the powerful synergy between academic diplomacy and international defense innovation. By fostering strategic dialogue and technological collaboration, it positions Rice as a pivotal nontraditional defense academic partner uniquely equipped to convene global stakeholders,” Veedu said.

In a landscape where technological edge plays a critical role in deterrence, and amid growing recognition of global supply chain vulnerabilities, the RISING Center offers a new model for international collaboration in defense-related research and advanced manufacturing. Its evolving framework could help build a more resilient foundation for sustained scientific advancement, technology development and talent cultivation in service of shared national and global priorities.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

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