ICMR boost to health research is a pragmatic but belated move

In a clear indication that the Centre is focussed on enhancing healthcare infrastructure in the country, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body for formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, recently issued the draft Policy on Research Infrastructure Sharing Ecosystem (P-RISE). Under this, researchers will have access to facilities for research in select ICMR laboratories across the country. The policy envisions a mechanism that provides access to a centralized network of scientific research infrastructure within ICMR thereby fulfilling the requirement of all researchers. It would, thereby, ensure optimal use of available research facilities while simultaneously promoting health research.

The purpose of the policy is to provide a structured overview for sharing of advanced research facilities in ICMR labs (even through institutes in Tier II cities) with researchers from medical colleges, universities and other institutions. This will help facilitate access to sophisticated instrumentation to researchers working in institutions with limited infrastructure, enabling them to perform good research; encourage research outreach and networking; improve quality data health research; ensure cost-effective research outcomes; and avoid duplication of research infrastructure.

The main objective of this policy is to establish access to a centralized network of scientific research infrastructure within ICMR to fulfill the research needs of all researchers across the country thereby ensuring optimal use of available research infrastructure and also to develop a provision of insentivization to the host institutes/researchers to support sharing and utilization of the research facilities.

Indeed, the apex medical research body has been making significant efforts to promote biomedical health research in the country. The Council recognizes the Indian research community’s growing need for access to state-of-the-art technologies and instruments for medical and scientific research. ICMR, through its institutes, has developed a strong network of biomedical research laboratories in the country. These sophisticated laboratories created and maintained over the years in ICMR can also be effectively and optimally utilized for scientific research and academic growth of the country in the health research sector. The initiative of sharing and effectively utilizing these research laboratories generated through public funds, with researchers across the country, will promote health research by ensuring quality research outcomes and facilitating innovative research.

It is a fact that at present access to cutting-edge facilities in health research infrastructure has limited access in India, due to the high cost of equipment and their subsequent maintenance and running cost.

A limited pool of trained manpower handling such sophisticated instruments is another bottleneck. However, the number of researchers in the health sector is increasing by the day, and hence it is imperative that mechanisms for access to critical scientific infrastructure should be in place to provide support to deserving researchers and institutions lacking such facilities.

The medical, dental and pharmacy colleges and universities and other research-oriented institutions represent a large pool of researchers whose scientific outcome gets confined or compromised due to limited or no access to the required research infrastructure. This lacuna can be sealed to considerable extent by making available the existing lab facilities to all researchers. Considering the necessity of having a structured research infrastructure sharing and access policy, this document is formulated to provide guidance on appropriate sharing and responsible management of research infrastructure available in ICMR institutes.

In fact, the momentum for this research infrastructure sharing initiative was started when Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the establishment of 157 new nursing colleges and a new programme for research in pharmaceuticals. She announced in her Budget speech that the facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams in order to encourage collaborative research and innovation. Towards this, a new program to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals is to be taken up through centers of excellence in select ICMR labs. The Union Government will encourage industry to invest in research and development in specific priority areas.

In keeping with these and making them happen, the Department of Health Research (DHR) and ICMR prepared the draft policy on research infrastructure sharing, ‘Policy on Research Infrastructure Sharing Ecosystem (P-RISE)’. This is a welcome move.

ICMR’s new policy initiative is bound to promote research and development in pharma while also pushing India up the value chain in the life sciences sector.