Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with National Cancer Grid (NCG), an initiative of the Government of India through the Department of Atomic Energy and its grant-in-aid institution, the Tata Memorial Centre.

The objective of the MoA is exclusively for clinical trials, focusing on the development of novel affordable therapies for India-specific cancers and cancers common in India.

The agreement covers joint funding for multicentric, multidisciplinary, interventional trials for common/unique cancers.

The National Cancer Grid (NCG) has been established to create a network of cancer centres, research institutes, patient groups and charitable institutions across India with the objective of developing uniform standards of patient care for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer; providing specialised training and education in oncology and facilitating collaborative basic, translational and clinical research in cancer. NCG today has over 270 hospitals in its network across India.