National Research Laboratory, CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (CSIR-IMTECH) has announced a new partnership with German science & Technology company Merck to establish a ‘High End Skill Development Centre’ in CSIR-IMTECH, Chandigarh.

The centre will be equipped with the next generation technologies, like gene editing & single-molecule biomarker detection and 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 also 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.

Dr. Shekhar C. Mande, DG-CSIR who was present on the occasion said, “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, Dr. Anil Koul, Director of CSIR-IMTECH said, “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.”

As far as curriculum is concerned, it will be skill development-oriented curriculum and real-time exposure to the cutting-edge technologies which will be further strengthened after assessing initial outcomes.