SEARCH Project: Networking Meeting
In July 2017, Medical Research Council in United Kingdom (MRC-UK) launched ‘Confidence in Global Mental Health Research: Institutional “pump-priming” awards to develop new opportunities in Global Mental Health Research’. This is a one year grant opportunity to lay the grounds for future large scale, multi-disciplinary, cross-country global mental health research to study mental health issues which are at a primary relevance in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).
The initial focus of MRC grant will be on the aetiology of mental illness and the impact of challenges to early brain development on mental health. The Institute for Research and Development, Sri Lanka (IRD) lead this grant application in collaboration with other partner institutions, and was successful in receiving this extremely competitive grant.
There were three main areas of focus under the proposed project by IRD. To name the initial strategies;
- Expand the health and social care research arena
- Expand Capacity Building Activities
- Establish the register of infant, child and adolescent twins and mothers pregnant with twins
The IRD arranged a two day networking meeting for the South Asian partners of this project, at National Institute of Mental Health, Angoda (NIMH) on 03rd and 04th of April, 2018. A total of 40 participants attended including the 04 foreign delegates from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.