Students Vision

Job Description: The world is facing a new health crisis: a rapidly increasing epidemic of chronic disease which is no longer restricted to high income countries. Today four out of five deaths from these conditions are occurring in low and middle income countries and at younger ages. Chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) became the principal causes of death and disability in the UK during the twentieth century and continue to present a huge health burden. With changing demography, i.e. economic development, urbanisation, nutrition transition etc, there is also now a growing epidemic of these diseases in the Indian population.

To help address the causes of this epidemic, in November 2009 the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) jointly hosted a workshop in New Delhi. Experts from India and the UK reviewed the current disease burden in their respective countries in cardiovascular disease, diabetes (especially the contribution of obesity and early-life under-nutrition in the aetiology of disease) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (in particular the role of smoking and indoor pollution in its development) together with the strengths, weaknesses and unmet needs of the existing research landscape in these areas.

Objectives and Remit

The partnership between ICMR and MRC aims to combine the strengths of the Indian and UK chronic disease research communities. The guiding principles for the call will be:

Funding available

Each joint proposal must include requests for funding from both India-based and UK-based Principal Investigators (please see Eligibility section below for details of eligible institutions).

ICMR will provide funding to Indian researchers for research based in India. Approximately 5-10 million Indian Rupees (50 to 100 lakhs) will be available per project for its entire duration for the ICMR-funded portion of the costs. The funds are to be utilized in India only. Funding will be provided as per the usual ICMR Terms and Conditions.

MRC will provide funding to the UK applicants. Approximately £500,000 to £800,000 is available per project for the MRC-funded portion of the costs. Funding will be provided as per the usual MRC Terms and Conditions which permit UK institutions to spend MRC funding overseas when necessary.

The funders are expecting to support a small number (3-4) of multi-faceted joint India-UK programme proposals each with an expected duration of three to four years (the fourth year of funding will be subject to a successful review in the third year).

Job Description: The technical report India on HIV estimates 2006 reports that the total number of HIV infection (in millions) in India was 2.47 million, out of which 3.8% of the cases seen were below 15 years. The HIV prevalence for adult males and females together has been showing a declining trend during past five years. It was 0.36% in the year 2006 against 0.45% in 2002. HIV Prevalence 2006 in general population was 0.3%. The adult HIV prevalence during last five years remained almost stable at 0.4% varying between 0.45% in 2002 and 0.36% in 2006. PLHIV in all ages in 2006 was 2.47 million. Around 4% of them were children, 8% among the above-49 age groups and the remaining 88% in 15–49 age groups.

The ICMR is presently working on projects that includes anemia and nutrition, pharmacokinetics of anti-TB drugs when given along with ARV drugs ,nutritional status, Nevirapine levels when given in fixed dose combination, CD4 levels in Normal population of children, estimation of pediatric HIV in a high risk district and effect of Zinc on the recovery of CD4 counts .

Single /Multi centric project Proposals are invited to conduct in-depth research on various aspects of Pediatric HIV. This invitation for proposal is at the national level. This call for proposals is also to encourage the North east region to develop projects in Pediatric HIV. The researchers are advised while writing project proposal, if required, they may send the projects via email to the mentors identified for the different topics in pediatric HIV who will help the researchers to develop the projects.

Application Closing Date: 15 September 2010
Submit 20 copies of the projects to

Pediatric HIV projects
Dr. K. Sathyanarayana,
Head RHN,
ICMR,
Ansari Nagar, 110-029

Further Fellowship Information and Application