National Health Research Policy

A draft National Health Research Policy was formulated in 2011. Its vision is to maximise the returns on investments in health research through creation of a health research system to prioritise, coordinate, facilitate conduct of effective and ethical health research and its translation into products, policies and programmes aimed at improving health especially of the vulnerable populations.

The objectives of the policy are:

1. To identify priorities for effective and ethical health research to enable the achievement of the objectives of National Health Policy (NHP) 2002, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), Bharat Nirman and National Food Security Act as well as global commitments such as Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and International Health Regulations (IHR), ensuring that the results of health research are translated into action.
2. To foster inter-sectoral coordination in health research including all departments within the Government, Private Sector and the Academia to promote innovation and ensure effective translation to encourage/accelerate indigenous production of diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, medical devices, etc.
3. To focus on the marginalised, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged sections of society.
4. To strengthen national networks between research institutes, academia and service institutes, and encourage Public-Private Partnership (PPP).
5. To put in place strategies and mechanisms for assessing the cost effectiveness and cost benefits of interventions for health.
6. To develop and manage human resources and infrastructure for health research and ensure that  international collaborative research contributes to national health.

The policy makes the following prescriptions:

1. Create a National Health Research System.
2. Establish a National Health Research Management Forum.
3. Operationalise a Ten-point action programme.