The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will soon begin research in the broad areas of basic and biomedical neurosciences. The area of reserach will cover areas such as epilepsy, CNS hypoxia, neuro-degenerative disorders, computational neurosciences, neuroinformatics, development of animal models of neurological diseases, models of CNS regeneration and reprogramming, functional imaging studies, etc.
However, DBT officials said that the research areas will not be restricted to these areas. The DBT has invited proposals from the scientists for conducting the research. The proposals must include scientific hypothesis to be examined in clinical or population settings, or directly aim at developing or evaluating new diagnostics tools, imaging or therapeutics. The proposals may include single investigator or multi-investigator group/s; and proposals may address issues of new diagnostics; biomarkers; traditional knowledge; pathway studies; drug-intervention strategies; instrumentation etc. Multidisciplinary and translational proposals will also be encouraged by the department.
Officials said that the grants will support critically needed equipment, consumables, personnel and contingency expenses. The duration of the proposal will be of three years and in exceptional cases five years. Long-term grant/proposals would need to be supported by preliminary data and restricted to those with proven track record.
Pilot proposals for seed-funding for obtaining preliminary data are also invited. Such proposals will be examined and funded as "Rapid Grants". It is expected that awardees of these grants will develop a full proposal based on the preliminary data, within an 18-24 months of the award of the pilot grant.
Organizational proposals in the form of long-duration multi-disciplinary projects such as cohort studies from individuals or groups can also be submitted under special category. The ultimate aim of funding this group of researchers is to finally develop "research projects" utilizing the cohort established for long-term studies in neurosciences-related areas, senior officials said.
The organizational proposal should initially not undertake the research project itself, but instead aim to establish a coherent organization that is capable of doing so. These grants will support initial organizational meetings and creating structures with the intention that they culminate in defining and administrative and research-structure capable of managing cohort studies of a decade or more in duration. It is particularly important that such structures should include expertise in managing such a project, including Indian and international collaborations. Pure epidemiology or survey, without scientific questions will not be considered, officials said.