Southeast Asia’s first WHO Collaborating Centre for Strengthening Ethics in Biomedical and Health Research to be set up in ICMR-National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for health research and, it’s Bioethics Unit at ICMR-National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), Bengaluru has been designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre for strengthening ethics in biomedical and health research. The centre is the first in the eleven countries in the Southeast Asia Region of WHO to be recognised for the work in the area of health research ethics.
The centre will lead the work in identifying and setting priorities for the region in considering ethical values, providing guidance and leadership towards promoting excellence in ethical aspects of biomedical research. It will play a pivotal role in developing tools and processes to set up research, innovation and education in ethics.
Stating the importance of the collaboration, Dr Roli Mathur, Head, ICMR Bioethics Unit said, “The collaboration will be a key to ensure that better research outcomes are achieved along with safeguarding individual preference. This centre will work to protect the rights, welfare, safety and dignity of research participants in biomedical and health research.”