To promote research collaborations between Indian and UK investigators in the area of substance misuse and mental health for exploiting the mutual strengths of the two communities, the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) will soon embark on collaborative research projects, primarily for the development of longitudinal and clinical studies of substance misuse and associated consequences.

Under this ICMR-MRC joint initiative on 'Aetiology and Life-Course of Substance Misuse and Relationship with Mental Illness', research projects will address two key areas of longitudinal studies and clinical studies.

Under the longitudinal studies, the focus will be on comparative studies between India and the UK, for example including families who have moved from India to the UK; India-only studies; and pilot work to establish a new cohort to cover brain imaging, epigenetics, environmental influences on neural function, bioinformatics, genomics, and large scale application of assessments e.g. stress reactivity paradigms, blood related assessments, eye movement studies, EEG and biofeedback studies.

The clinical studies will stress on comparative studies between India and the UK, for example including families who have moved from India to the UK and India-only studies.  For example, assessment of treatment effectiveness (e.g. brain imaging, mass spectrometry, etc.), comparison of treatment outcomes, studying medically naïve ill populations e.g. to examine underlying psychological, physiological, metabolic and pathological factors, and studies on early brain development and its consequence for subsequent psychopathology.

Both the ICMR and MRC have invited joint proposals from high quality research teams based in the UK and India.

All Indian applicants must be working in a permanent position in a medical college, research institute or university, anywhere in the country including government, semi-government and registered bodies. Applications from non-governmental agencies and private organisations should provide documentary evidence of registration certificate for research with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Govt of India previous track record etc.

Examples of key issues agreed under this research partnership included investigations into the determinants and community-wide secondary consequences of alcohol addiction in India and the UK, including Indian communities in the UK. Research proposals are particularly welcomed that enable development of cohort studies and incorporate capacity building. Where appropriate, the work could build on existing partnerships/networks/cohorts.