The Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB) and the Takshashila Institution (TI) have announced a collaboration to introduce a one year Postgraduate Diploma in Bioscience Policy Research (BioPolicy PGD) programme. The classes for the programme will begin in July 2019, and will be primarily conducted at IBAB’s Bengaluru campus with parts of the course conducted through live interactive webinars, online lectures and a learning management system.

The course is open to any graduate in any field of science/technology, including medicine. Graduates with work experience will be preferred. Those with higher degrees such as PhDs, or those with post-doctoral experience, are also welcome to apply.

The BioPolicy PGD aims to provide science and technology graduates with inter-disciplinary education to tackle real-world problems in industry, academia, media and policy making.

The BioPolicyPGDwill help students develop quantitative and data visualisation skills, policy analysis, economic reasoning and business and policy communication skills.

“The best decisions are informed by evidence. It is important that policy decisions are informed by evidence and context, which leads to the most objective and rational decisions. Good education or training programmes in this area are of utmost importance. We are starting this course due to the huge unmet need for professionals with the requisite skills for evidence-informed policy making,” said Dr HS Subramanya, Director of IBAB.

“The BioPolicy PGD will help scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs think about the larger impact of their work on society and help navigate through the increasingly complex global policy environment. We want to equip our best minds with new capabilities that can help transform India,” said Nitin Pai, Director of TI.