Gandhinagar: As part of the first pre-summit session of 'Vibrant Gujarat 2011' eleven educational institutes and universities based in Gujarat signed MoUs with foreign universities and companies for Research and Development (R&D). The ceremony was presided by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and the state's education principal secretary Hasmukh Adhia at the Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar. "Research is the essence for future development. I assure you that Gujarat has a society that will offer an ambience of risk-taking and entrepreneurship so that the fruits of research are enjoyed by common man," Modi told the delegates. The foreign universities that signed MoUs include universities of California, Pennstate, Western Ontario, UCLA, Oklahoma, Saskatchewan (Canada), Kansas, Manuela Bertran, Thames Valley, Maryland and Papperdine. The MoUs deal with establishing centres of excellence and R&D centres, economic research, student and faculty exchange and research activities, technology commercialization and so on.