The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) India and the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK will soon launch the UK-India Joint Centre Partnerships which seek to build upon substantial pre-existing collaborations between high quality research teams based in the UK and India.

Under this joint initiative aimed to encourage and strengthen UK India research partnerships, Centre Partnership grants will be made available to centres or consortia of existing partners who are already in receipt of both MRC and DBT funding for enhancing existing partnerships between the UK and India to further develop collaborative research; strengthening the strategic relationship between the UK and India; and for supporting the mobility and exchange of MRC- and DBT-funded researchers to enhance established links between researchers in both the countries.

One of the major areas of thrust of this joint project of MRC and DBT would be cancer biology.  This includes understanding the basic biological mechanisms relevant to the aetiology of cancer or mechanisms involved in cancer metastases. It also includes development of novel therapeutics, including chemical biology approaches for drug discovery.

Another area of focus will be translational regenerative medicine in neuroscience which will be aimed at translating promising research into the clinic. In this area, focus will be on regenerative medicine research approaches to neurosciences/neurological disorders which have the specific aim of turning fundamental discoveries into improvements in human health. This would be by targeting pre-clinical and clinical development to human proof-of-concept studies.

Another area of focus is antimicrobial resistance especially resistance to antibiotics as there is a rise in the number of bacteria becoming resistant to existing antibiotics without an increase in new antibiotics or new treatments. It is clear that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to tackle these challenges and make a step change in addressing this growing global problem. Collaboration between the UK and India will facilitate sharing information, tools, compound libraries, datasets and screens to acquire new insights into the emergence and spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria, the evolution of resistance and to drive the discovery of new diagnostic, preventative and therapeutic strategies for bacterial infections particularly antibiotic resistant strains.

The centres will be jointly funded by the MRC and DBT. Each centre should develop one node in the UK and one node in India. Although funding will be made available to expand upon and enhance currently funded research activities, this call is primarily focused upon developing and enhancing the research partnership.