New Delhi: India and Britain on Thursday decided to launch a new phase of the India-UK Education and Research Initiative, as they discussed prospects of further cooperation in the field of education.

According to a joint statement issued at the end of the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron, the first phase of this jointly-funded initiative had helped establish over 400 collaborative ventures between Indian and British universities and schools between 2006 and 2011.

The new phase will run for a further five years, from 2011 to 2015, and is expected to take this collaboration further.

Co-operation in education, science and research, and a new emphasis on jointly funded collaborative research programmes were the main highlights of the deliberations in the field of education.

Both sides also welcomed the initiative of collaboration between India's Department of Biotechnology and the Welcome Trust, London to support the development of innovative healthcare products at affordable costs.

Earlier, an official statement from the Human Resource Development ministry said that Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal and his British counterpart, Minister of State for Universities and Science David Willets had, in principle, agreed to the exchange of research scholars.

Sibal, however, pointed to the issue of equivalence of degrees which becomes a problem in the mobility of students.

The statement said Sibal also informed his British counterpart about the National Vocational Qualification Framework that is in the process of formulation.

"The UK minister stated that skill development was an area of focus within the UK also and he is keen to cooperate with India in this area," the statement said.

Sibal also proposed cooperation in the area of GIS (geographical information system) and its intricate relationship with IT and information communication technologies. IANS