The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has finally initiated steps to appoint full-time directors at its many premier institutes which have been remaining headless for a long time.

The CSIR, which has 37 institutes under its fold, has started the process by inviting applications from outstanding R&D professionals to head its 14 institutes, most of which have been functioning without directors for some years now.

The institutes included four from the biological sciences sector. The Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Lucknow, the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicines (IIIM), Jammu, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, and Indian Institute of Toxicological Research (IITR), Lucknow are seeking directors. The CSIR has already received several applications and the scrutiny will begin after September 15, sources said.

Applications had been invited from those having PhDs and having minimum 16 years of experience in research and development in the area of the activities of the institute and demonstrated excellence in leadership, sources said. Even as the country lacked huge manpower in areas like biological sciences and required many training centres to churn out skilled people, the top scientific institutions remaining headless for long years had come in for criticism from different quarters. Many of them have been running with officiating directors.

The CIMAP is engaged in R&D areas relating to genetic improvement in varieties of medicinal and aromatic plants and developing technologies for cultivation and processing of medicinal and aromatic plants, essential oil, dye and gum yielding plants for value- added products. CIMAP has about 250 international and national patents to its credit. The IIIM, Jammu, is into the development of agro-technology of medicinal and aromatic plants, their propagation techniques, isolation of active fractions and study of bio-activity of these plant extracts, fractions and molecules, and standardization of medicinal and traditional plants based medicines.

The IGIB in Delhi is carrying out research and development in genomics, integrative and molecular biology, allergy and infectious diseases, bio-informatics and environmental biotechnology by collaborating with medical institutes, universities and industries of high scientific impact leading to technological developments. The IITR, Lucknow, is holding R & D in the areas of health risk assessment, preventive toxicology, predictive toxicology, environmental toxicology, inhalation toxicology, and analytical toxicology. IITR also imparts training in water quality assessment.