Johns Hopkins Gupta-Klinsky India Institute (GKII) announced its foray into India to strengthen research in public health, medicine, climate change, and technology over the next five years through partnerships with over 100 organisations in India, including the NITI Aayog, ICMR, and MoHFW.

In an event in Delhi, a panel discussion centred around “Applying Lessons Learned from COVID for a Stronger Health System” and included keynote speaker Amitabh Kant and a panel with industry leaders and health experts Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr Gagandeep Kang, Professor, CMC Vellore and Laboratory Director,

The Wellcome Trust Research Laboratory, Dr Srinath Reddy, President, Public Health Foundation of India, Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta, and Dr Amita Gupta, Co-Chair, GKII and Director, Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

The panel highlighted the importance and urgency of interdisciplinary and multistakeholder approaches that generate new solutions for health system resiliency.

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, ‘Covid has exposed a need for efficient healthcare delivery, and the need of the hour is technology and research solutions that provide data-based information quickly so that we can make sound health decisions swiftly—both during a pandemic and for ongoing health challenges. And this isn’t unique to India, but with our collective focus, it can really grow in India.”

Gagandeep Kang, Professor, CMC Vellore, ‘The past two years have shown that robust research frameworks inform life-saving health solutions. Public-private partnerships remain key to the impact of research, whether it is R&D for vaccines and therapeutics or implementation plans for delivery.’

GKII’s focus draws upon nearly a century of impactful JHU-India collaborations and will prioritize global health initiatives focused on healthcare and health systems, engineering and emerging technologies, energy, and climate. GKII also aims to advance public-private partnerships to encourage investments, research, knowledge sharing, and innovative solutions to national health priorities including TB, gaps in child immunization coverage, non-communicable diseases, disease surveillance, capacity building and support for a strong global health workforce.

Computational medicine and precision health through world-class AI and machine learning is a key focus for GKII partnerships.