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 The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has released Guidelines on the Human Resource Development (HRD) Scheme for Health Research as per the 15th Finance Commission Period (2021-22 to 2025-26).
Much of the biomedical research being carried out in the country today is confined to a few medical colleges/institutes of the country. A major constraint in most of the medical colleges of the country is the lack of adequate and properly trained human resource in the field of health research.
The HRD Scheme of the Department of Health Research was therefore created with an aim to establish a pool of talented health research personnel in the country by upgrading skills of faculties of medical colleges/institutes, mid-career scientists, medical & non-medical students, etc. by specialized training in priority areas of health research in leading national and international institutions, encourage and support the trainees to develop and take up research projects for addressing critical national and local health problems and financial assistance to Institutions for up- gradation of infrastructure to enable such Institutions to provide training with state of the art technologies.
“It is imperative that the ongoing and future research priorities should coincide with the national health priorities such as control and management of communicable diseases, fertility control, maternal and child health, control of nutritional disorders, developing alternative strategies for health care delivery, containment within safety limits of environmental and occupational health problems; research on major non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, blindness, diabetes and other metabolic and haematological disorders; mental health research and drug research (including traditional remedies). Efforts thereby are to be made to reduce the total burden of disease in the country and to promote health and well-being of the population,” according to the ICMR.
The Scheme of Human Resource Development for Health Research was initially approved by the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) in its meeting held on November 18, 2013 under the Chairmanship of Finance Secretary & Secretary (Expenditure) and by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) in its meeting held on February 28, 2014 at total estimated cost of Rs. 597 crore. The scheme was further extended for the period 2017-18 to 2020-21. And then again approved for the further period of next five years w.e.f. 2021-22 to 2025-26 for 15th Finance Commission period with the approval of EFC in its meeting held on March 18, 2021.
It has been further reviewed by the competent authority, with the approval of Ministry of Finance in addition of some new programs which intend to create a much larger pool of talented health research personnel in the country by focusing on skill based training of research scholars, young medical students, faculty of medical colleges, mid-career scientists, women scientists with career break and NRI/PIO/OCI serving abroad who wish to return to India for undertaking research in the identified areas thereby encouraging and supporting them to develop and take up research projects for addressing the critical national and local health problems, to provide financial assistance to institutions for up- gradation of infrastructure to enable such institutions to provide training with state of the art technologies.
As per the guidelines, support will also be provided to scientific/professionals/association bodies engaged in the field of medical research for undertaking various activities/events with a view to promote higher standards in medical/health research and for devising guidelines for policy making and prevention and management of diseases.
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