Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) is partnering with Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) to create a knowledge hub ‘VAYYU’ — the Virtual Research Centre on Aerosol–Meteorology Interactions, Himalayan Atmosphere-Cryosphere interactions, and Urban Air.  

The new centre will focus on advanced simulations and observations to better understand how aerosols influence regional hydro-climate, Himalayan snow and glacier melting, and Air Quality in Indian megacities and beyond.

A MoU towards this collaboration was signed recently by Shanti Pawan, Dean (Research), Manu Santhanam, Dean (ICSR) and VAYYU research centre coordinator, Chandan Sarangi, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Madras, along with FMI leadership, including Petteri Taalas, Hannele Korhonen and Rakesh K Hooda.

“Climate change and monitoring is the most important area to be investigated in a global platform.  It is very heartening to note that IIT Madras will partner with Finnish Meteorological Institute in this very important topic,” V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said.

“I am pleased to strengthen our collaboration with IIT Madras through this MoU, building on three years of joint work on Himalayan aerosols to address challenges of importance to India and the wider world,” Petteri Taalas, Director General, Finnish Meteorological Institute, said

The partnership will work on two major international research initiatives including the CryoSCOPE project, with a total investment of approximately €10 million, that will deploy monitoring systems at Kargil in the Himalayas to investigate the role of aerosols in accelerating glacier melt and drought/flood conditions and the CO-ENHANCIN project through which a new urban observatory was built in the IIT Madras campus worth approximately ₹5 crore.

The collaboration comes on the back of previous partnerships between the institutions through joint scientific field campaigns and structured exchange programmes. 

Published on February 16, 2026