The Odisha government signed an agreement with the University of California, Berkeley, in the US for cooperation in research, impact assessment of schemes and exchange of academic publication, an official statement said on Wednesday.  The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed during the visit of a delegation of the state government to Silicon Valley, it said.  As part of the agreement, the state government and UC, Berkeley will collaborate on research projects, and jointly organise conferences and workshops, it said. Special emphasis will be on joint training workshops in high-tech areas and approximately 1,000 researchers are likely to be trained, it added.  The agreement will also enable the state government to connect with UC, Berkeley's illustrious alumni network for collaboration on various initiatives, the statement said. In the first phase, pilot projects will be launched in disaster management and climate control, healthcare, fintech, and agriculture. Partnerships in emerging-tech areas such as artificial intelligence and machine learning within the governance system will bring more transformation in public delivery mechanism, it said.