Fresh funding initiatives by India Alliance to boost health innovation

New Delhi: The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance, a public charity that funds health research in India, recently announced the launch of new funding schemes that aim to address major health challenges for India and the world. Three new initiatives will fund collaborative research projects, clinical research centres, and clinical research training, as ways to promote excellence and innovation and enhance India’s health research ecosystem.

With the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India and Wellcome Trust, UK, renewing this partnership for another 5 years, India Alliance has entered a new phase of funding from April 2019. This allows India Alliance to amplify its efforts beyond providing individual fellowships at different career stages to basic biomedical, clinical, and public health researchers, which it has done for 10 years. We now bring three new initiatives: Team Science Grants, Clinical/Public Health Research Centres, and Clinical Research Training Programme.

Team Science Grants (TSG) will fund teams that bring together high-quality scientists from multiple institutions with complementary skills, knowledge, and resources to address an important health challenge for India. High-risk, high-reward proposals can also seek funding under this programme. Details of the programme are available here.

Clinical/Public Health Research Centres (CRC) are envisioned as ‘research-oriented centres’, which preferably involve multiple institutions that focus on important biomedical research problems and develop physician scientists. The CRCs would be virtual centres that could have either crosscutting or vertical research themes, with the training of early career physician-researchers as an essential component. Beyond the funding period, the CRCs are expected to evolve as sustainable centres that strengthen India’s clinical and public health research ecosystem. Details are available here.

Physician-scientists link the clinic to research, for which the CRCs can have an embedded Clinical Research Training Programme (CRTP). These will fund 3- to 4-year mentored research training fellowships for medical graduates (MBBS) and post-graduates (MD/MS). These fellowships are meant to integrate basic and clinical/public health research and equip trainees with skills necessary for a career in health research. Learn more about this fellowship programme here.

“I am thrilled that the next phase of India Alliance is now operational and we are launching three new initiatives. Having funded very high-quality individual researchers for the past 10 years, the next phase must focus on the coming together of teams to create more than the sum of parts. We anticipate that generous, flexible, and timely funding administered through efficient grant management processes will catalyze the development of a world-class research ecosystem that will drive solutions to improve the health of many,” said Dr Shahid Jameel, CEO of India Alliance.

Applications would be accepted online from 16th May 2019 to 17th June 2019. All inquiries about the new programmes should be directed to info@indiaalliance.org.