The Indo-Dutch Research Centre (IDRC) was established by the Government of Kerala at Government Law College, Ernakulam, to give institutional form to the Memorandum of Understanding between GLC Ernakulam and the Van Vollenhoven Institute (VVI) at Leiden Law School, Leiden University. The MoU was signed on 13 December 2024.
The Centre draws on the deep historical ties between Kerala and the Netherlands, and on the complementary strengths of two distinguished legal institutions, one rooted in India's rich socio-legal tradition, the other at the heart of European law and governance scholarship.
At its heart, the IDRC exists to engage the next generation of lawyers, researchers, educators, and community members in one of the defining questions of our time: what does a truly climate-resilient Kerala look like, and what can we learn from the Dutch experience of living with water?
Within the Centre's current research programme, the IDRC serves as the coordinating axis, managing the academic partnership with GLC Ernakulam, designing and facilitating bilateral workshops, connecting Kerala-based fieldwork with the Dutch academic and governance network including the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus alliance, and developing the frameworks and tools that outlast any single research cycle.
