To facilitate bilateral cooperation in biotechnology between the scientific communities of India and Germany, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will soon begin collaborative research in the identified priority area of 'Bioinformatics in Health Research' under the programme of Indo-German Cooperation in Health Research.

The purpose of the programme is to stimulate new collaborations, e.g. the preparation of joint projects under national funding programmes. The programme facilitates bilateral cooperation in biotechnology between the scientific communities of India and Germany by way of joint research projects which will encompass bilateral workshops/seminar and exchange visits of scientists.

The programme is being implemented within the agreement of Indo-German cooperation in S&T of 1974, under which the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Forschungszentrum Julich BMBH (FZJ), Federal Republic of Germany, have agreed for cooperative programme in biotechnology.

DBT of the Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India and the Project Management Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR-PT, European and International Cooperation), Bonn are the nodal implementing agencies from the Indian and German side respectively.

Through this programme, it is expected that the funded cooperation enables the partners to develop applicable scientific results which can be published and/ or could be commercialised and may lead to formation of joint ventures. All publications, patents coming out of these projects, need to be jointly authored by both Indian and German scientists. All necessary approvals like ethical clearance, HMSC approval from Indian point of view as well as EU, if applicable, from German point of view, e.g. before conducting animal experimentation if any needs to be obtained by PIs before undertaking the project.

Now, both the nodal agencies have invited research proposals in identified priority area of 'Bioinformatics in Health Research' from eligible scientists.  Joint research projects are required to be submitted to both the nodal agencies by 15 January 2018. Scientists/faculty members working in regular capacity in universities, national R&D laboratories/institutes and private R&D institutes can be part of this joint research programme.   For the private sector, partners from all kind of private sectors are eligible, but financing is limited. For Indian scientists from the private sector, only local hospitality in Germany as part of the exchange visit is available from the German side.  For German scientists from the private sector, only travel costs are available for small and medium size enterprises (for definition of SME ref. to 2003/361/EC) as well as local hospitality in India will be borne by themselves.