Noida: The city may soon have its own Kendall Square or Tsukuba Science City, with Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority planning five university townships — planned conglomerates of higher education institutions, research centres and skilling facilities — spanning 500 to 700 acres, located within or adjacent to a major industrial corridor.The layout is designed to enable universities and companies to collaborate on research, innovation, internships, and skill development.Officials said that though National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 promotes multidisciplinary education and stronger industry-research linkages, there is limited clustering of institutions, minimal sharing of high-quality infrastructure, and insufficient co-location with industry. This limits the ability of institutions to fully benefit from economies of scale, interdisciplinary collaboration, and integrated innovation ecosystems.Yamuna Authority CEO RK Singh said under the model, multiple public, private and PPP institutions would be allowed to establish campuses while retaining their academic, administrative and financial autonomy. Campuses will also have laboratories, libraries, housing complexes, incubation centres, internship and apprenticeship cells, sports facilities, roads, utilities and digital infrastructure.The proposed model will draw on Kendall Square in the US, a global innovation hub anchored by MIT, Harvard University, Tufts University, and Boston University, as well as a world-class biotechnology and pharmaceutical cluster, including Novartis and Moderna, and major R&D hubs for tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, and Apple. It will emulate Tsukuba Science City, which is Japan’s leading centre for science and innovation.The locations for these university townships would be selected on the basis of proximity to industrial and logistics corridors, availability of large contiguous land parcels and state readiness for execution.
