The Health Ministry Screening Committee clearance (HMSC) is mandatory for all research proposals involving foreign assistance. The ICMR is the secretariat for HMSC and facilitates technical review of the proposal, which is a mandatory requirement for placement before the Health Ministry Screening Committee. The proposals involving all or any of the following criteria must be submitted for consideration by HMSC:

• Foreign funding or, assistance is to be received
• Technical collaboration is envisaged
• Both foreign funding or, assistance and technical collaboration are integral part of collaboration
• Funds disbursed for a research project or a clinical trial by Indian office of an international agency or, Multinational Company (MNC) are also considered foreign funds.

All proposals submitted to HMSC are reviewed by technical experts and HMSC. The review criteria include, but are not limited to the submitted project meeting the following:

• Reflects national research priorities and relevance to Indian health priorities.
• All planned transfer of biological material for QA/QC purpose is in accordance with the guidelines of MOHFW issued in 1997 and duly signed Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
• Details on sharing of raw data/filing of patent
• Details on transfer of technology/capacity strengthening
• Whether Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) clearance and other regulatory requirements/clearances required the study have been obtained
• National security/sensitivity concerns including visit by foreigners to sensitive areas or institutions
• Issues like registration with CTRI, insurance cover, accountability and compensation relation to clinical trials as per prevailing rules and regulations of Govt. of India
• Need and justification for foreign collaboration.

In case of doubt, PI should contact to HMSC Secretariat at ICMR for assistance. WHO funded projects are excluded from the need for HMSC clearance.

The project investigators are permitted to send biological material outside India related to their research projects or collaborative projects from time to time. It is advisable to include this as a part of the project proposal to HMSC and seek clearance for the same. The Institute follows the guidelines for exchange of Human Biological Material for Biomedical Research issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India vide Office Memorandum no L.19015/53/97-III(Pt.) dated 19th November, 1997.

Data generated from all contractual/ drug trial projects (where the funding agency pays per patient) are owned by the funding agencies. Funding agencies such as US Government agencies like National Institute of Health (NIH) and Wellcome Trust insist on publication of the research findings in open access journals (which do not charge users for electronic access). While, most international funding agencies do not claim ownership of the research outcome, they should be acknowledged. In general, AIIMS believes that data of publicly funded research should be in public domain. However, this would not apply to privately funded projects.

The applicant must write to Dean (Research) to get registered in the ERA COMMONS portal. This request is processed by the signing officials (SO) – the Dean (research) and Associate Dean (research), or the AOR (authorized organization representative) by creating a user ID for the applicant. An email is generated by ERA COMMONS and sent to the applicant, notifying registration on era commons. A somewhat similar process has to be followed for registration on Grants.gov, here the applicant creates own user name and password and individual profile and intimates Dean (Research) , who in turn affiliates the user ID with the Institution and assigns suitable role to enable the applicant to submit grant applicants to federal agencies via Grants.gov. The submission of a proposal on grants.gov must be authorized by the SO, or AOR on behalf of the organization.

The following numbers associated with AIIMS, New Delhi are useful while applying for different US Government

1. DUNS Number – 650131030
2. NCAGE Code – SBB79
3. EIN – 1900217187A1

The office of Dean research maintains all documents pertaining to the registration and annual renewal with System for Award Management (SAM) and Office of Research Integrity (ORI) which are integral part of application for US government funds. Issues related to registration of AIIMS ethics committee for federal wide assurance (FWA) required for certain US government funded projects are however dealt by the ethics committee.