This proposal requests financial support to organize two workshops, one in India and the other in the US, which will bring together ophthalmic researchers in India and the US. Based on these workshops, a number of binational research collaborations are expected to be initiated. The proposal emanates from an appreciation of several advantageous features obtained in India: (a) India has a far larger number of familially inheritable eye disorders, due to the prevalence of intra-community and consanguineous marriages. This offers the possibility of studying these conditions in greater depth and rigor. (b) Conditions that are relatively rare in the US- e.g., various forms of corneal dystrophy or glaucoma-are encountered more frequently in India. (c) Several eye care centers in India have been maintaining, over the years, detailed medical records of a very large number of patients, analysis of which would yield new leads and directions for research. (d) India offers excellent opportunities for clinical research, pilot human studies and fellowship training. (e) Chosen eye centers in India have researchers of high quality, rigor and track record, and they are already in touch (and in some instances, collaboration) with researchers in the US. (f) The research dollar goes farther in India, due to the lower costs of manpower and infrastructure. There is thus a mutually beneficial resource complementation between India and the US, which can be exploited to advantage through bilateral dialog and collaboration. It is with the view to promote such a dialog and mutual appreciation that we propose holding two meetings to bring researchers of the two countries together. We suggest the first be held in India and the second in the US- to enable the participants to gain first hand appreciation of the facilities available and to forge personal links. It is better that the two workshops are run within a short interval so as to save time and effort and build synergy. Based on these visits and discussions, collaborative research projects are expected to emerge. A list of broad topics or sub-fields could be identified as thrust areas.
| Balasubramanian, D; Kaufman, Paul L; U.S.-Indo Collaborative Research Workshops Group (2006) Research opportunities in vision: a report of the U.S.-Indo workshops on collaborative research. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 47:1717-35 |
