AIIMS AND OBJECTIVES

AIIMS DELHI HAS LONG BEEN IN THE VANGUARD OF MEDICAL RESEARCH IN INDIA. IN A POST-COVID WORLD, THAT ROLE IS NOW MUCH MORE PRONOUNCED

- Sonali Acharjee

For 67 years, AIIMS Delhi has been at the forefront of India’s medical advancement journey. Now, in a post-Covid world where the importance of proactive medical research and efficient public health systems has been thrown into sharp focus, the institute’s role has become even more pronounced. AIIMS Delhi has launched a series of partial travel grants and fellowships for its residents to enable them to present their research to an international audience. The competitive grant is funded through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes of various companies. The institute has also collaborated with the University College London and IIT Delhi for research, and has set up a centralised core facility on campus for additional support to researchers.

“We are keen on promoting younger faculty members to participate in research through various competitive grants. We are also encouraging departments at AIIMS to come together and do inter- and intradepartmental research,” says Dr Sanjeev Lalwani, registrar (academics), AIIMS. Depending on the merits of the research, students can get additional funding from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and other governmental agencies. “We guide them and support them in any way we can,” adds Lalwani. The institute also plans to introduce new fellowship programmes next year. The idea is to enable students who have completed their doctor of medicine (MD) degree and have on-field experience of three years as a senior resident to specialise in specific domains through a targeted fellowship programme.