Both India and the US will soon begin bilateral collaborative research partnerships (CRPs) on diabetes research to advance science and technology important to understanding, preventing, and treating diabetes and its complications through the collaborative efforts of Indian and US investigators and their institutions.

The collaboration of India and the US on diabetes is significant as in both the nations, diabetes is striking increasingly in younger age groups, with potentially devastating implications for the health, well-being, and productivity of future generations. To reduce both the human toll and the societal burden of diabetes in both countries, affordable, practical, and effective approaches and technologies for preventing and managing diabetes and its complications are urgently needed.

Specific areas of interest for this programme include studies that may address or be focused within one or more of the broad research areas such as prevention and management of diabetes or its complications; pathogenesis and pathophysiology of diabetes and its complications; diabetes in youth; innovative technologies for management and prevention of diabetes and/or its complications; and gestational diabetes.

The CRP must be based on interactive relationships that maximise the expertise of the individual Indian and US research teams and interactions between their parent institutions and granting agencies. It is expected that the unique opportunity available through the India-US collaborative research programme will foster collaborative partnerships that may subsequently mature and expand beyond the scope of the work proposed in current application. It is anticipated that some of these partnerships will also be relevant to translation into public health activities in India and/or the United States.

Indian and US collaborating investigators should work together to develop and submit corresponding applications to ICMR and NIH. Indian investigators will respond to this announcement from ICMR and US investigators will respond in parallel to a separate funding announcement from the NIH.

Indian and US investigators seeking support for a collaborative research partnership under this programme are instructed to submit their proposals to the respective agencies not later than 18th September 2014.