The GenomeIndia Project, supported by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) recently completed sequencing of 10,000 Indian genomes with 20 collaborating institutions. The Genome India Project has the potential to make a significant impact on genomic research and healthcare in India.

The project aimed to map the genetic diversity of the Indian population and understand how genetic variations contribute to diseases, health conditions, and drug responses across different ethnic and regional groups. The long-term vision is to create an extensive database of genetic information that can be used to improve public health, drive medical innovations, and provide insights into human evolution, migration, and the environmental influences on genetics.

By understanding the genetic landscape of the Indian population, it will pave the way for more personalized healthcare, improved disease prevention, and better patient treatment strategies. However, the success of the project depends on its downstream application, ensuring privacy, ethical integrity, and responsible data usage.

Current call aims to facilitate organisations, researchers and health leaders with the expertise to work in partnership to exploit the opportunities of translational research using GIP data sets for addressing some of the critical personalized and community-wisse health
issues of Indian population.

Project scope and focus areas include, but are not limited to:

1. Reference Genome: Develop comprehensive reference profiles for phenotypical and genotypical characteristics unique to specific Indian community groups
2. Population Specific Genetic Risk Factors: Identifying and mapping of rare and community-specific genetic variants, with a focus on demographic, geographical, and disease associations (such as sickle cell anaemia in tribals of a specific state/​geographical region) and developing risk stratification/​prediction tools for the same.
3. Epigenetics: Integrate gene-environment interaction studies with high-throughput genomic approaches to identify individual and population-level risk factors, enabling early risk prediction and precise modelling of multifactorial diseases
4. Cost-Effective screening/​Diagnostic Tools: Development of cost-effective indigenous screening/​diagnostic tools that incorporate population-specific genetic risk factors aiming to improve cost efficiency, reduce overdiagnosis, and enhance targeted disease screening for high-risk populations
5. Precision Medicine: Leverage gene-disease-drug associations, big data-driven AI/ML techniques, and bioinformatics to understand complex biological networks and enable personalized treatment optimization for improved clinical outcomes
6. Genetic Variant Association and drug development: Utilize SNP-based data from chronic disease association studies, comparing healthy individuals and diseased patients, to identify significant genetic variants, explore their functional roles, and evaluate their potential in refining diagnostic precision, and therapeutic targeting.
7. Disease Outbreaks response strategies: Development of technologies predicting spread of infectious diseases using genetic data and understand how genetic factors influence susceptibility to infections.

• Any Indian National holding a regular position in any Indian academic and scientific research institutions (Govt./Private) may apply. This call for proposal is open to all applicants eligible for Govt. funding. The research institutions must be recognized by DSIR as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO).
• Private institutions/​NGOs should have proof of registration at ​‘NGO DARPAN’ of NITI Aayog (http://​ngo​darpan​.gov​.in/), Certificate of registration under Society Registration Act, Organization’s Memorandum of Association, Organization’s Articles of Association, Valid DSIR-SIRO certificate/​DSIR in-house R&D recognition certificate (as applicable), and Duly audited account statements for the past three successive years.
• There should be at least one co-investigator from each participating institute and either one of the PI or Co-PI should have remaining service in co-terminus to the duration of the project.
• The Team of Researchers (PIs/Co-PIs) should be multi-disciplinary with expertise in the areas like genomics, precision medicine and data science etc., capable of dealing with large amount of data, having expertise in building prediction tools involving Computational Biology, Statistics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, etc. through high-throughput omics approach.
• Use of free and open source Software is preferred and encouraged to for executing the project and to ensure usability of the data to the research community at large.

All proposals submitted as per Letter of Interest (LoI) format within the due date of the call will be considered by the committee(s) approved by the Competent Authority of DBT as per the Competitive Research Grant System Guidelines of DBT. The project investigators may be invited to make a detailed presentation before the Expert Committee, if required as per DBT norms. The decision of DBT on the proposal will be the final and same will be communicated to the investigator. The deadline for proposal submission is 28^th February, 2025

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