South-South Collaboration priority to ensure region benefits from each other's expertise: ICMR director

New Delhi, Aug 22 (PTI) The South-South collaboration remains a priority through joint projects and capacity building to ensure that the region benefits from each other's expertise, ICMR Director General Dr Rajiv Bahl said, emphasising that "science and research must serve people directly".

He made the remarks at the concluding day of the two-day regional meeting titled "Health Research and Innovations in Public Health: Exchange of Good Practices across RESEARCH Platform", organised by the Indian council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The event, held at the Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, brought together senior representatives from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Timor-Leste to deliberate on strengthening health-research systems, facilitate the exchange of good practices and promote cross-border collaboration in South and Southeast Asia.

The meeting marked an important milestone in fostering collaboration across South and Southeast Asia to ensure that health research directly informs policy, addresses regional priorities, and builds sustainable systems for the future.

"Global partnerships and science diplomacy have always been central to India's strategy. The South-South collaboration remains a priority through joint projects, and capacity building to ensure that the region benefits from each other's expertise. Above all, science and research must serve people directly," Bahl said.

The representatives reached a consensus on several fronts, including the South-South Collaboration, where the countries agreed that regional cooperation is essential to tackle common challenges such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR), non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and One Health.

During the meeting, joint efforts in medical technology innovation, field-epidemiology training, ethics and quality assurance were identified as priority areas.

The participants committed to formal mechanisms for research-policy dialogue, ensuring that scientific evidence is translated into effective programmes.

The ICMR offered to share its tools and resources, including common ethics review forms and free online training courses, so that countries at nascent stages of building research systems can adapt those without having to start from scratch.

Looking ahead, the countries agreed to establish structured mechanisms for collaboration, including annual or biannual convenings, exchange visits and joint capacity-building programmes in research methods, ethics, grant writing and science communications.

The meeting concluded with a collective commitment to move from knowledge-sharing to joint action, with each country exploring opportunities to lead on specific thematic areas such as One Health, pandemic preparedness, infectious diseases, vector-borne diseases, maternal health and medical innovation, ensuring that health research across the region directly responds to regional needs and priorities. PTI PLB RC