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International Cooperation: Benefits Beyond Boundaries By S. Natesh and Shailja Vaidya Gupta, Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi (natesh.dbt@nic.in / shailja.dbt@nic.in) As published in BIOTECH NEWS In today's shrinking world, no country can afford to isolate itself in a knowledge-based economy. Moreover, there are a number of problems in health, agriculture, energy and environment that can be solved only through international partnerships. Indian biotechnology, therefore, while solidly rooted in home soil has to have a global outlook. We recognize that the cost advantage will not serve us for very long, and we need to put in place global best practices and quality standards in order to remain globally competitive. For India, international alliances are essential with public as well as private sector partners, both in the developed and developing world. This will also help in generating IPR jointly, harmonizing regulatory processes, smoothening trans-boundary movement of biologicals and to leverage better markets for biotech products and processes. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) has decided to forge enduring partnerships with a few well-chosen strategic partners such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA. USA and UK have been our traditional partners for several years now but more recently other interesting and strategic partnerships are emerging. Australia is a case in point. Under a recent agreement, a Joint Biotechnology Committee of Australia's Department of Environment, Science & Technology and DBT has been established to supervise, discuss and review guidelines, principles of management, priorities and progress of ongoing projects and funding of new proposals. So far, six workshops have been held and some 13 projects have already been supported. Last year's MoU between the National Research Council (NRC), Canada and DBT has led to the signing of an agreement in September 2007 with NRC-Plant Biotechnology Institute at Saskatoon with each party pledging Ca$ 5 million to the R&D partnership in the areas of oilseed genomics and plants for health & wellness. A joint workshop attended by scientists from both countries was held in New Delhi in February, 2008 to discuss priorities and a follow-up workshop is being planned for July at Saskatoon to freeze the identified priorities. The collaboration with International Science & Technology Partnerships, Canada has resulted in a joint call for proposals in biotechnology. DBT has also signed an agreement with the University of Saskatchewan for research and exchange of scientists and similar agreements are likely to be signed with Ontario and British Columbia as well. An agreement was signed between DBT and the European Commission at Brussels in April, 2008 to work together for enhancing opportunities in food, agriculture and fisheries biotechnology research. To begin with, two areas have been identified: food, and health & wellbeing. DBT and EC will each contribute € 3 million over the next three years. Both will also be issuing joint calls for proposals in July this year. Collaborations with Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are progressing at a quick pace. India and Denmark are exploring the possibility of starting joint M.Sc./Ph.D. programmes with Indian institutions. The Finnish Academy of Sciences and DBT are currently holding discussions on the possibility of setting up an Indo-Finnish Institute of Diagnostics. India is also working closely with Japan in the areas of bioinformatics, cell engineering and glycoscience. A new and exciting feature in international partnerships is that DBT is forging alliances at the institutional level with selected strategic partners. The Stanford-India Biodesign program illustrates this new trend. The mission of the programme is to jumpstart India's nascent biomedical technology industry through development of the next generation of innovation leaders. Under this programme, Indian scientists will be trained in Stanford's “biodesign process”, which includes invention and discovery, education, technology transfer, ethics and policy as well as career development and placement. A Stanford-India Biodesign Centre has been set up at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, in conjunction with Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. Future programmes include biodesign internships for managers from Indian medical technology industry and teaching of medical technology innovation courses at elite engineering and medical institutions targeting undergrads and graduate students. A similar collaborative programme has also been established with MIT-Harvard programme and will be operative at the newly coming up Health Sciences & Technology cluster near New Delhi. Another exciting programme on the anvil is the setting up of DBT-Wellcome Trust Fellowships to attract top world class leaders to work in Indian laboratories. Taken together, these initiatives will hopefully usher in a new era in international collaborations. |
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