The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is planning to expand its network of Regional Medical Research Centres (RMRCs) by setting up new centres in 17 more States during the current Five Year Plan period.

According to a proposal by the ICMR, the activities for setting up the new RMRCs will begin by utilising the funds allocated for the creation of new institutions and centres. It had projected Rs.1450 crore as cost for creating new institutions during the plan period, though in-principle approval is still awaited in the case of new RMRCs.

The RMRCs have been established by the ICMR primarily to address the local/regional health and research problems in remote and other areas that are under-served by the institutional network of the Council. At present, the six RMRCs are located at Belgaum (Karnataka), Bhubaneswar (Orissa), Dibrugarh (Assam), Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh), Jodhpur (Rajasthan) and Port (Andaman and Nicobar Islands).

The States being considered for new RMRCs are Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Punjab, Haryana, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and six north-eastern states -- Meghalaya, Manipur, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram and Assam.

“Over the last several years, the RMRCS have been very successful in their mandate primarily because they have been closely working with the local/State administration with a clearly focused mutually agreed health agenda. As in addition to addressing local needs, the RMRCs have also been carrying out high quality research on the disease prevalence, carry out outbreak investigations and undertake interventions as needed and network with the local institutes to improve the local/regional research capacity building that would help the State administration in the long run. In the light of  these successful collaboration with the State governments, there has been a demand for setting up of new ICMR centres from other States also,” according to the proposal.

To address the critical issue of limited or inadequate infrastructure and qualified and trained staff at the new sites with, these Centres will be established in a phased manner. In the first phase, the RMRC would be set up in a local medical college or a suitable institute in consultation with the state government.

In the second phase, depending upon the progress, these centres will be upgraded into a full fledged RMRCs. In States, where there is already a functional centre of the Council like Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Alappuzha (Kerala) these Centres are proposed to be upgraded into full fledged RMRCS, as per the ICMR proposal.