The department of biotechnology (DBT), government of India and ministry of science and technology (MOST), socialist republic of Vietnam has announced a joint call for collaborative proposals to support medical, environmental and agricultural biotechnology (including animal and aquaculture) research. The project period shall be 24 to 36 months. The complete details for submission of collaborative project proposals can be sent latest by July 31, 2013.

The purpose of the call is to build on the combined strengths of academic research groups within India and Vietnam, to work together on collaborative multi-disciplinary research in the areas mentioned below:

i. Agriculture Biotechnology-Marker assisted breeding for agronomically important traits in crop plants with special reference to rice; Isolation, characterization and functional validation of novel genes/promoters for agronomically important traits in crop plants; Application of biotechnology in plant genetic resource management.

ii. Medical Biotechnology-Development of in vitro molecular diagnostic assays for various infectious and non-infectious  diseases of relevance to India and Vietnam;Development of vaccines for various infectious diseases including technology transfer for coproduction in both the countries;Evaluation of bioactive compounds from plants/microbes for their application.

iii. Animal Biotechnology (including Aquaculture)-Improved vaccines and molecular methods of diagnosis for animal and poultry diseases
including nano delivery systems; Innate immunity analysis of native breeds of animals and chickens to identify their disease resistance characteristics; Application of biotechnology in animal genetic conservation.

iv. Environmental and Industrial Biotechnology-Application of biotechnology in food processing/industry; application of biotechnology for environment protection/ biofertilizer production.