From News Desk

The Indian-headquartered Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) has selected 15 early-career researchers from universities and research institutions across the world for its Global Biofuel Champion Fellowship (GBCF). The fellows will each receive a USD 15,000 research grant and will work with the Alliance over the next two years to advance research, knowledge exchange and international collaboration in sustainable biofuels.

The fellowship programme brings together researchers working across biofuels, sustainable energy systems, transport decarbonisation and the circular economy.

The inaugural cohort was selected through a three-stage international evaluation process from applications received across 32 countries. The selected fellows represent institutions including the University of Michigan, the University of Manchester, Monash University, Polytechnique Montréal and leading research organisations across Africa, Brazil and India.

The Global Biofuel Champion Fellowship was conceived to strengthen international cooperation by connecting academic research with policy and industry. The programme seeks to facilitate collaboration across countries, support applied research, promote knowledge exchange and help translate scientific innovation into scalable bioenergy solutions.

In a specialised keynote address, Dr Neeraj Mittal, Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), India; and Interim Director General of the GBA, underscored that the transition to a sustainable future has evolved into an immediate operational imperative. Delivering his address virtually, Dr Mittal presented India’s recent bioenergy trajectory as an open-source blueprint for the international community, demonstrating how decisive policy frameworks yield significant economic and environmental dividends.

Speaking to the assembled media, Josh Wycliffe, Director, GBA said, “To ensure the fellowship delivers sustained geopolitical and technical value beyond the initial launch event, the GBA leadership has introduced a futuristic post-event roadmap designed to maximise the long-term impact of the newly inducted Ambassadors.”