The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) will soon begin joint projects in the field of common interest of health research.

Both the ICMR and the RFBR have announced a joint call for research projects 2016 focused on “Bio-Imaging and Bio-Informatics” in the priority areas such as data mining, pattern recognition, computer aided drug discovery; analysis of drug reactions and toxicity; computer design of the medicine compounds; biosensor development analysis; mechanism of secondary impact caused by medical preparations; and photodynamic therapy.

Requirements for participants projects are to be carried out by individual scientists or groups of Russian and Indian scientists, which may include graduate and undergraduate students, but headed by respective Russian and Indian principle investigators (PIs). The PI should be a regular employee of the organisation obliged to secure implementation of the project. The PI can be associated with only one project participating in the call.

The call participants in India apply for funding in accordance with the ICMR rules and the Russian applicants - in accordance with the RFBR rules, using their national agency’s own application forms. Russian and Indian participants of the projects should submit proposals containing information required by ICMR and RFBR respectively. All projects accepted for the call will be independently reviewed by RFBR and ICMR. The proposals’ review and assessments will be based on the selection criteria such as scientific excellence/merit of the projects; mutual advancement of research through the transfer of knowledge and expertise; participation of young researchers; and ability of the teams to successfully complete the project. The duration of the projects under this call is a maximum of 3 years.