U.S. to fund 3 Indian research institutions

Tags: Science and Technology National News

The United States of America has announced $122 million in funding to the top three Indian medical research institutes to help prevent preventable pandemics, early detection of disease threats, and prompt and effective response.

• A total amount of US$ 122,475,000 will be disbursed to three top Indian health research institutes over a period of five years.

• These three research institutes are Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai.

• The fund will accelerate progress towards India that protects against infectious disease threats by focusing on emerging pathogens.

• The fund will help in detecting and controlling zoonotic disease outbreaks through a ‘one health’ approach, evaluate vaccine safety monitoring systems, capacitance of the public health workforce in epidemiology and outbreak response.

• Starting from September 30, 2022, eligibility for funding is limited to ICMR, and ICMR institutions, which are the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, and the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai.

• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

• It is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world headquartered in New Delhi for the coordination and promotion of biomedical research.

• It works under the Department of Health Services (DHS), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

• It was established in 1911 as Indian Research Fund Association (IRFA).  

• Later in 1949 its name was changed to ICMR.

• National Institute of Virology (NIV)

• It is one of the major institutes of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

• It was established at Pune, Maharashtra in 1952. 

• It was established as Virus Research Center (VRC) under the aegis of ICMR and Rockefeller Foundation (RF), USA.

• National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE)

• It is a permanent premier institute of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) established on 2 July 1999.

• It was established by merging the Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy (CJIL Field Unit), Avadi with the Institute for Research in Medical Statistics (IRMS), Chennai.

• The objectives of the Institute are conducting epidemiological studies, development of human resources in epidemiology and bio-statistics etc.