NEWS: The Department of Health Research (DHR), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare released the Draft National Health Research Policy, 2026 for public consultation. It is India's first comprehensive policy to create a unified framework for health research.
ABOUT
- Aims to align health research with India's disease burden and public health priorities.
- Integrates biomedical research, clinical medicine, public health, epidemiology, digital health, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- National Health Research Agenda (NHRA): Prioritises research based on disease burden, health equity, pandemic preparedness, and national priorities.
- Three-tier Governance: National Health Research Stewardship Committee, DHR (nodal agency), and ICMR (scientific & technical lead).
- Outcome-Based Evaluation: Expands ICMR-IRIS to assess research based on policy impact, healthcare outcomes, indigenous technologies, and societal benefits rather than publications alone.
- Higher Funding: Proposes increasing public health research expenditure from 0.024% of GDP to 0.072% by 2037 and 0.15% by 2047.
- Emerging Technologies: Focus on AI, health data science, precision medicine, genomics, cell & gene therapy, and climate-health research.
- Shared Research Infrastructure: Publicly funded facilities to be accessible across institutions.
- Ethics & Data Governance: Emphasises research integrity, cybersecurity, ethical standards, and community participation.
WHY IS IT NEEDED?
- Fragmented health research ecosystem with weak inter-agency coordination.
- Research priorities not fully aligned with India's disease burden.
- Limited research capacity in Tier-II and Tier-III medical institutions.
- Weak translation of research into healthcare policies and technologies.
- Need for regulation of AI, genomics, and digital health research.
- Strengthening pandemic preparedness and biosecurity.
RELATED INITIATIVES
- National Health Research Programme (NHRP)
- ICMR Innovative Extramural Research Grants
- DHR Human Resource Development (HRD) Scheme
- MRUs, MRHRUs & VRDL Network
- Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)
- ISRO–AIIMS Space Medicine MoU (2026)