For sharing and offering opportunities to scientists from developing countries to come and work in Indian institutes and laboratories, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has embarked upon international fellowships for capacity building and human resource development programme for biomedical scientists working in developing countries.

For participating in the programme, the scientists should be a citizen of a developing country and working in that country. He or she should possess a minimum qualification of MBBS/M.Sc (life sciences) with preferably below 45 years. The applicant should be employed in a regular position in a recognised university/scientific/health research institution in his/her respective country.

The application should be forwarded by the employer/head of the institution preferably through the Indian Embassy in the respective country with a statement that the candidate will be considered on duty as a full time employee of the institution during his/her fellowship programme.  Knowledge of spoken/written English is essential (to be certified by Indian mission abroad) and the applicant should prepare a concrete plan of training he/she wishes to undertake in India.

Senior officials in the ICMR said that the launch this programme by the ICMR is of great significance as the world is now witnessing a rapid change in the way biomedical research is conducted. The developing countries are in the grip of formidable challenges posed by the existing communicable diseases coupled with new emerging infections. On the positive side, rapid advances in science and technology have brought in new technologies to understand the disease process and find strategies for prevention and cure. There are areas at the cutting edge of science such as molecular medicine, genomics, immunology, which have revolutionized knowledge for finding rapid diagnostics, vaccines, new drug targets and other therapeutic measures. There is an urgent need that researchers working in the core health sectors like diagnostics, epidemiology, surveillance and cure are exposed to the latest advancements in knowledge and interact with international scientists in their respective field of work.

Considering that India has attained excellence and leadership amongst the developing countries in several areas of research especially in tropical and communicable diseases in the field of epidemiology/surveillance/diagnosis, it becomes imperative that India should take a lead in sharing and offering opportunities to scientists from developing countries to come and work in Indian institutes/laboratories, the official said.

It is to achieve this objective and for better south to south cooperation, the ICMR has embarked upon this programme for biomedical scientists working in developing countries, he added.