India Alliance

The Wellcome Trust  is a global charity dedicated to improving health by supporting bright minds in science, the humanities and social sciences, and public engagement. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. The India Alliance is its first venture internationally where it has partnered with the Government to build capacity not only by providing funding for science but also by training a Grants unit that follows internationally recognised processes.

The Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, was formed in 1986, giving a new impetus to the development of the field of modern biology and biotechnology in India. It has made a significant impact on the growth and application of biotechnology in the broad areas of agriculture, healthcare, animal sciences, environment and industry. Given the large breadth of activities and intimate involvement with the nation’s effort to build capacity in human resources and infrastructure the DBT greatly strengthens the India Alliance’s capacity.

Together, this partnership is aimed at promoting biomedical research in India through funding and engagement.

In order to carry out the mandate of building scientific capacity in India, an independent Grants office was set up in India which follows grant processes similar to that at the Wellcome Trust. The initial Grants team was trained in grants management at the Wellcome Trust from January 2009 to July 2009 and the India Alliance Office was set up in Hyderabad after having been sufficiently trained and equipped. It has now been fully operational since July 2009 from its office premises at Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. An additional office in Delhi was officially inaugurated in November 2014. The India Alliance offers four Fellowship schemes to basic biomedical scientists, clinicians, public health researchers and veterinarians who wish to pursue academic research in India. The basic aim of all the schemes is to provide flexible and generous funding to enable the researchers, in different stages of their careers, to perform internationally competitive scientific research. The schemes are highly competitive and the Office works with the Applicants and Committees to ensure that standards are maintained to the highest international level.
When the first awards were made, it was realised that formal documents that describe policies on scientific misconduct, good research practice and conflicts of interest were not present at most Indian Institutions. To address these lacunae, the Office has assisted institutions with the India Alliance Fellows to draft and implement policies in these areas.