Our consortium of leading India- and US-based multi-disciplinary, research organizations in collaboration with diverse NCD-focused global, national- and state-level stakeholders responds to the National Cancer Institute's RFA-CA-15-007 to design and plan a Regional Center of Research Excellence (RCRE) for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in India. The consortium is led by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), a foundation dedicated to strengthening public health training, research, policy development and affordable health technologies in India; the Research Triangle Institute (RTI) India, a private research organization committed to addressing India's enduring and emerging health and development challenges; and Emory University, one of the world's leading research universities, with a strong public health focus and global presence. Our key in- country research partners are the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Institute of Cytology of Preventive Oncology (ICPO), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Cancer Institute (WIA), and the New Delhi and Chennai cancer registries. Other scientific experts and key stakeholders will contribute to substantive and procedural aspects of the RCRE (in the short-, mid-, and longer-terms) through participation in the Scientific Advisory Group or the Community Collaborative Board. The Coordinating Unit of this application will focus on administrative aims and develop mechanisms for the provision of services to support the research strategy, training, and shared core resources. We will establish mechanisms to support and expand existing and new collaborations between Emory University (USA), and India-based partners to build a country-wide population- and clinic-based RCRE infrastructure. We will also develop a collaborative governance structure to oversee the RCRE network and components by convening a Steering Committee (SC) comprised of key investigators and selected senior leadership from partner cancer registries/institutes and clinical centers, a Scientific Advisory Group (SAG), which will include global and national scientists with established expertise in NCD research and a Community Collaborative Board (CCB) comprising diverse NCD- focused global, national, and state level stakeholders who will promote attention to community interests, and tie RCRE activities to community needs and activities. To monitor progress of this project we will implement a comprehensive evaluation plan by collecting and assessing both quantitative and qualitative data, to assess success of research activities, performance of shared cores, and impact of research enhancement.
