The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sanctioned Rs one crore as grant for capacity development to the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), Mohali. Though the details of the programme are yet to be finalised, the entire amount is to be used to strengthen the pharmacoinformatics capabilities of NIPER. The amount is for a period of three years. According to sources, NIPER is to utilize the funds for meeting its hardware requirement.

The DST had taken the decision to grant Rs one crore to NIPER after the institute sought a grant of Rs 3 crore for developing its pharmacoinformatics project. The DST agreed for one third of the amount and asked NIPER to build the right research group and research proposals for considering further grants.

NIPER had organised a national workshop on 'Molecular Modelling and Pharmainformatics' from 1-5, November 2004. The workshop aimed at the upgradation of skills of Indian academicians and scientists in the emerging new areas of science and technology. The current workshop was the third on Computer Aided Drug Discovery, the previous two were organised by the institute in 1998 and 2002.

The workshop was attended by eminent professors like V M Kulkarni, from Pune, Prof. B. Jayaram, from IIT, New Delhi, Prof. A. Bhattacharya from JNU, New Delhi, Dr. A K Saxena, from CDRI, Lucknow and Dr. G N Sastry from IICT, Hyderabad provided a forum for interactions among scientists and young scholars in this field and help in nurturing new ideas.