Feature: Meet the new CEO of the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance
3 December 2008. By Chrissie Giles.
Chatting to me in the café at the Wellcome Trust headquarters in London, Professor Anuradha Lohia exudes a quiet confidence. This, combined with her many years of experience as a researcher, will clearly come in useful for her new role: CEO of the Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance, an independent, public charitable trust based in India, newly established by the Wellcome Trust and the Government of India’s Department of Biotechnology.
The Alliance will support and nurture biomedical research in India by offering Early Career Fellowships, Intermediate Fellowships and Senior Fellowships to researchers who are Indian nationals or overseas citizens of India. Exceptional candidates who are neither of these things, but who wish to conduct research in India, will also be eligible.
“Indian scientists are at par with scientists in the developed world, despite being in the developing world,” says Professor Lohia. “However, many Indian scientists lack access to sophisticated infrastructure and a robust support system for managing their research projects. Many good scientists are trained at the PhD level, but we have not been able to attract them to stay in India.
“We are currently in a state of transition, where the Government of India is investing in building the required infrastructure and creating new jobs. However, a lot more effort is needed to ensure that this is successful.”
She is passionate about using her position as CEO to slow the so-called brain drain, which can see a high proportion of professionals leaving the developing countries where they were born and trained to seek jobs in the developed world.
“At the Alliance we hope to identify the best people and fund them generously to build infrastructure, develop collegiality, facilitate mentorship and provide leadership for young scientists.”
She believes a career spent in the lab - most recently working on protozoan parasites at Bose Institute, Kolkata - has prepared her well for this role: “As a scientist I’ve complained bitterly about what I don’t have, so for the first time in my life I have a chance to redeem those complaints.”
These complaints relate to the frequent delays that can affect scientists working in India, even in processes as basic, but crucial, as obtaining laboratory equipment and reagents. “Every scientist tries to get their reagents fast, but this isn’t always possible in India,” says Professor Anuradha. “It shouldn’t be that your experiments are waiting for reagents, but that your reagents are waiting for your experiments.
“In the West the scientist is not bogged down by the bureaucracy of the purchasing process. We need to cut down on the unnecessary delays that we face in project management, processing and grant funding in India.”
Three types of fellowship are on offer, spanning key career stages from recently qualified post-docs to experienced researchers. “We need to have people who are young and bright, as well as leaders who are established in the West who will come back and be role models,” says Professor Lohia. “We’re looking to build a global centre for excellence for biomedical science in India.”
As with Wellcome Trust funding, the Alliance will consider applications from fellows working across the breadth of biomedical science. Work related to health issues relevant to India will be welcomed, but Alliance support is not restricted to this. “We’re going for excellence in science, as long as it’s something that’s original, excellent and innovative, I’m sure sooner or later it will be relevant,” says Professor Lohia.
She is also keen to ensure that this research will be carried out across India, rather than being concentrated - as it is now - in the metropolitan cities. She explains that they’re aiming to have an even distribution of talent across the country, but underlines the point that you can’t distribute talent without infrastructure.
To begin with, the Alliance will have six grants advisors and a grants manager, who will operate using the same grantmaking model as the Trust, give or take a few regional changes. They will be supported by an in-house finance team. The selection committees will include Indian scientists alongside those from the rest of the world, to ensure an international perspective.
Heading up one of the major new initiatives to boost biomedical research in India is a massive challenge, but one that Professor Lohia seems ready to face head on. “We’re looking forward to bringing back a lot of talent to India. I'm very glad the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Biotechnology have given me this opportunity. It’s an immense responsibility and I really want to succeed.”
