Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies on Thursday announced a grant of Rs. 100 Crores to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) and the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) to set up the ‘Centre for Brain and Mind’.
According to a press statement, the Centre will further cutting-edge research to understand the causes, correlates, and course of five major illnesses – schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, dementia, and addiction, and explore potential interventions and treatments for them.
“Under this MoU, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies Foundation, founded by philanthropist Rohini Nilekani, will support the activities of the ‘Centre for Brain and Mind’ (CBM) for five years starting April 2023. Over five years, CBM will simultaneously pursue two tracks – long-term research and building capacity for both research and practice in the mental health field. Approximately 193 million people in India suffer from various forms of mental illness, and there is a need to find better ways of diagnosis and clinical management for many of these disorders,” the company stated on Thursday.
It is press statement, the organisation claimed that this multidisciplinary, inter-institutional partnership between NIMHANS and NCBS (with inStem) will contribute greatly to the broader field of mental health.
“Mental health is an area that demands more attention and support. The recent pandemic brought out this need even more starkly. Through this grant, I hope that a collaboration between two apex institutions of this country will provide globally relevant insights, evidence and pathways for better treatment for millions of people in India and the world. The Centre for Brain and Mind hopes to build an ecosystem for the larger community of mental health practitioners. Its research on five critical disorders, which will no doubt be pathbreaking, will be open-sourced to allow more innovation in both academics and practice. I wish the Centre all success and hope it becomes a global hub for sharing knowledge in the years to come,” Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson, Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies, said in a statement.
This new grant will strengthen the existing practices, allow the database and repository to become open source, and reach its potential of maximum utilisation by scientists all over the world, it added.
