The Ministry of Ayush and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Thursday to promote and collaborate on integrative health research, focusing on identified areas of national importance in healthcare for promoting high impact research to generate evidence utilizing modern scientific methods.
“Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has guided us to integrate the benefits of both Traditional and Modern Medicine for the benefit of mankind. Through the cooperation of ICMR, today, both Ministry of Ayush and Health have taken a very far reaching step in this direction,” said Union minister of Ayush Sarbananda Sonowal.
The MoU will enable both parties to jointly establish Centers for advanced research in integrative health at all AIIMS with co-funding. Further, they will explore the possibility to work on public health research, take initiatives for addressing diseases of national importance and look at possibilities of conducting high-quality clinical trials jointly on identified areas/disease conditions of national importance with promising therapies of ministry to generate evidence for wider acceptance.
One of the important aspects of this MoU is related to building research capacity, which will be led by ICMR for Ayush researchers. It will develop a curriculum, facilitate the development and delivery of training modules. Ministry of Ayush and ICMR will also design and conduct conferences/workshops/seminars jointly with active participation of researchers interested in the field of Integrative healthcare.
