The UK and India have announced Phase 2 of the UK–India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory, reaffirming their joint commitment to industrial resilience, sustainability ambitions, and technology-led economic growth.

The announcement was made during the recent UK–India trade deal signing ceremony, attended by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and UK Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, marking a major milestone in cooperation on secure, sustainable supply chains. The declaration also coincided with the first anniversary of the UK–India Technology Security Initiative (TSI), a flagship agreement aimed at advancing shared priorities in frontier technologies and national security.

The UK–India Critical Mineral Supply Chain Observatory, led by the Industrial Resilience Research Group at the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM), University of Cambridge, in close partnership with the Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and others, serves as a collaborative platform to map supply chains, assess risks, and identify investment and recycling opportunities across both countries.

Critical minerals, such as lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt, are essential for modern high-tech applications, including electric vehicles, renewable energy and semiconductors. Recognising their strategic importance, both governments have prioritised the development of resilient and transparent supply chains to reduce dependency on single-source suppliers and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

“The project is considered of significant importance for both countries’ national and economic security,” said Mukesh Kumar, Head of IfM’s Industrial Resilience Group. “By building the largest data infrastructure for critical minerals, we aim to identify supply chain vulnerabilities, enhance capabilities, and promote ESG and sustainability.”

Backed by £1.8 million in funding, phase 2 will extend the Observatory’s scope, including the development of the world’s largest industrial data infrastructure on the critical minerals value chain and establish a new satellite campus at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad.

Strong industry participation for the Observatory is being brought in by a collaboration with the Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation Ltd–promoted International Centre of Excellence in Mining (iCEM). iCEM brings in £600,000 of funding and a collaboration that deeply explores the practical implementation of the Observatory in the end-to-end Rare Earth Element supply chain, with a strong focus on skill development in mid-stream operations of critical minerals. The project will generate recommendations to strengthen global supply chains, mitigate disruptions, and enhance circular economy practices across sectors.

By aligning industrial policy, digital innovation and sustainability goals, the Observatory contributes directly to the broader objectives of the TSI, offering a model for bilateral cooperation on securing supply chains in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

Professor John Aston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Cambridge, says, “The University of Cambridge's researchers engage in some of the most urgent and complex challenges facing the world today.  Critical minerals have a key role to play in all our lives, in India and the UK and beyond, especially in energy transition and new technologies.  So we welcome the opportunity to work more closely with our Indian colleagues in analysing the links (and breaks) in the supply chains of these essential elements.”

Professor Tim Minshall, Dr John C Taylor Professor of Innovation & Head of the IfM, says, “The launch of Phase 2 marks a significant step forward in the UK–India partnership on critical minerals. As global demand for such resources continues to grow at an extraordinary pace, resilient and transparent supply chains are essential to delivering both technological innovation and net-zero targets. This Observatory reflects a shared commitment to long-term collaboration, bringing together academia, governments and industry to build the digital infrastructure needed for sustainable and secure access to critical resources.”

Mr Roopwant Singh, IAS, Managing Director of GMDC Ltd, says, “The India–UK Technology Security Initiative provides a very good platform for academic and research centres like the IfM at the University of Cambridge to partner with institutions like iCEM, which are solving real-world challenges faced by companies like GMDC Ltd. As it works closely with global partners, GMDC Ltd is actually building out the infrastructure that will lead to enhanced, global, supply chain resilience.”  

Mr Kiran Srirama, Field CTO (Industries), Google Cloud says, "Google Cloud is excited to collaborate with University of Cambridge Industrial Resilience Group (IRG) on founding the technology innovation platform required for the highly innovative and ambitious 'Global Supply Chain Observatory' programme. The collaboration helps create a multi-purpose foundation for leveraging cutting-edge AI and Machine Learning to achieve supply chain resiliency for critical minerals by creating a comprehensive data infrastructure to monitor and analyze the entire supply chain for critical minerals, from mining to manufacturing in key markets and regions."

Find out more about the Global Supply Chain Observatory: www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/industrial-resilience/global-observatory