Chronic diseases - which include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, mental disorders, cataract and cancers account for over two-thirds of the global burden of disease and are the leading causes of death and disability in the south Asian region. Although many chronic diseases are preventable disease burden is projected to increase dramatically. Research on the causes, prevention and management of chronic disease is also limited in scope and scale and South Asia does not have any major international research centre focused on chronic diseases.

The Public Health Foundation of India received a grant from the Wellcome Trust to establish a Centre of Excellence for Chronic Diseases at Delhi (called SANCD – South Asia Network for Chronic Diseases in India), which will augment PHFI’s capacity for research in chronic diseases in India. This centre is a collaborative venture with constituent colleges of the Wellcome Trust Bloomsbury Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine, UK.

This Centre hopes to build international quality research capacity, harness scientific talent within the region, fuel breakthroughs in knowledge needed to make real differences to health policy and practice, and ultimately contribute to reducing chronic disease burden. Our focus is on establishing a sustainable framework for building research capacity and policy relevant evidence for the prevention and control of chronic diseases in south Asia.

Objectives of the Centre:

• Network to facilitate dissemination of evidence and advocacy for changes in health care priorities and practices to policy makers, practitioners and researchers
• Establish building and infrastructure, with core interdisciplinary scientific staff
• Build state of the art research infrastructure in terms of field methodology, develop research methodology, research laboratory service, create health databases and research governance
• Conduct translational research, health care evaluation studies, including RCTs, evidence synthesis, health systems and health policy research
• Mentor and provide career structures for researchers at all stages of their careers