India’s premier National Research Laboratory CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) today announced a new partnership with Merck, a leading German science and technology company, to establish a ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ in CSIR-IMTECH, Chandigarh. Equipped with the next generation technologies, like gene editing & single-molecule biomarker detection, the centre will help accelerate healthcare research and train Indian students and researchers in latest life science technologies and make them industry ready.

Under the Memorandum of Understanding, Merck in collaboration with CSIR-IMTECH will use their expertise in Life Science to build a centre which will help researchers and students develop advanced competencies and analytical skills required for life science research. This will be a first of its kind, Academia-Industry-led, ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ laboratory in Chandigarh that has been established to augment Government of India’s initiative for skilling India in the area of Life Science.

This ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ will enrich skills by conducting workshops, trainings and seminar series on cutting edges life science processes, tools and techniques. The centre will facilitate hands-on experience to learning and real time sample analysis. The proposed state of the art Centre will integrate Work-based and Research-based learning by providing next generation lab set-up for carrying out real time sample analysis and learning workshops for selected group of technologies in the domain of Life Sciences.

The event was presided over by Dr., Director General of CSIR & Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and representatives of Merck at the CSIR Headquarters, New Delhi.

DG-CSIR Dr. Shekhar C. Mande , present on the occasion said that this collaboration resonates with the Government of India's mission of ‘Skill India’ and would be a new benchmark for up scaling employability skills for graduates and post graduates who are aspiring to make a career in the life science sector.

Expanding on the contours of this MoU, the Director of CSIR-IMTECH, Dr. Anil Koul said that collaboration with leading companies like Merck will bring a paradigm shift in the way knowledge alliances like these are created in public-private partnership mode.

The Centre will have skill development-oriented curriculum and real-time exposure to the cutting-edge technologies which will be further strengthened after assessing initial outcomes. This High-End Skill Development Centre will function on the principle of “no-profit, no-loss” basis and has been primarily created to augment Government of India’s initiative for building skills in the area of Life Science.

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RDS/GK