Introduction

With upgradation of JIPMER as an “Institution of National Importance” and consequent increase in faculty members and undergraduate students across all streams there has been a significant and continuing increase in research activity at all levels.  The purpose of UG Research Monitoring Committee (UGRMC) is to increase the quality of undergraduate research, which is undertaken in JIPMER and encourage the students to publish it in reputed journals.

Functions

The undergraduate research proposals generated at JIPMER need to have the approval of a scientific committee before being submitted for an ethics committee for consideration. Under this process, UG Research Monitoring Committee performs mainly the function of consideration of undergraduate research proposals for quality improvement and approval. After the approval the proposals are referred to JIPMER Ethics Committee for consideration. 

UG Research Monitoring Committee has following terms of references (TOR):

1. To facilitate UG students in learning to think in innovative and creative ways.
2. To facilitate UG students in understanding the link between research and patient care.
3. To facilitate UG students to use and understand the relevance of using statistical methods and tools required.
4. To facilitate UG students to understand the importance of teamwork in conducting research.
5. To facilitate UG students in developing communication skills to present their research findings in various scientific platforms

 With upgradation of JIPMER as an “Institution of National Importance” and consequent increase in faculty members and postgraduate and postdoctoral students and increased availability of funds there has been a significant and continuing increase in research activity at all levels. The JIPMER Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) was constituted in 2009 by inclusion of external experts to replace the JIPMER Institute Research Council. The purpose of JIPMER Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) is to increase the quality of research which is undertaken in JIPMER.

Functions

The research proposals generated at JIPMER need to have the approval of a scientific committee before being submitted for an ethics committee for consideration. Under this process JIPMER Scientific Advisory Committee (JSAC) performs mainly the function of consideration of research proposals of JIPMER faculty for quality improvement and approval. After the approval the proposals are referred to JIPMER Ethics Committee for consideration. In addition to research proposals of JIPMER faculty, JSAC may also consider non-dissertation and non-thesis research proposals of JIPMER senior and junior residents (since the scientific content of MD/MS/DM/MCh thesis/dissertation proposals is being handled by individual Departmental PG Research Monitoring Committees) and research proposals of JIPMER College of Nursing faculty and PhD research proposals requiring extramural funding.

JIPMER offers Ph.D. programme in various disciplines. The Ph.D / Doctoral Research Monitoring Committee is exclusively intended to monitor Ph.D. research projects at JIPMER.  The Dean (Research) is the head of this committee. The committee meets once in six months to critically evaluate the candidate’s progress. Upon recommendation of the Doctoral committee the candidate is allowed to continue the Ph.D. project. In the event of an unfavorable recommendation, a review is constituted and decision will be taken, if necessary. The members of Ph.D. / Doctoral Research Monitoring Committee evaluate the Ph.D. programme in various departments of the Institute during its meeting and assist the Dean (Research) in resolving any issues that may occur in the implementation of the rules and regulations related to the respective programmes at JIPMER.

Functions

The major responsibilities of Ph.D. / Doctoral Research Monitoring Committee are:

• To approve the constitution of Doctoral Committees (DC) of each Ph.D. student suggested by the guides.
• To monitor the progress of Ph.D. research carried out by Ph.D. scholars by reviewing their reports of Doctoral Committee.
• To review and approve the panel of internal and external examiners suggested by DC for valuation of Synopsis and Thesis of Ph.D. students.
• To ensure timely conduction of Pre-Ph.D. examination to be convened by respective guides.
• To facilitate the completion of research projects by providing suitable ambience in the Institute as well as outside the Institute to carry part of their work if need arises provided this is mentioned and approved in their study protocol by the Doctoral Committee.
• To facilitate presentation of their scholarly work in the proper scientific forum, workshops, conferences, etc.

After JIPMER becoming an “Institution of National Importance” there is a great increase in biomedical research and the number of research projects carried out. This involves a number of ethical issues which needs to be addressed. To facilitate the smooth functioning of the ethics committees, Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) has been divided into three – IEC for Interventional Studies, IEC for Observational Studies and IEC for College of Nursing. The Institutional Ethics Committees of JIPMER play the vital role of guiding researchers in the ethical issues associated with their research.

FUNCTIONS:

The major responsibility of IECs is to protect the rights, safety and well-being of the research participants. The IECs conducts regular meetings for reviewing the research proposals and give suggestions to the investigators to make their research ethical before approving them. All research projects in humans should get the approval of any one of the IECs before starting their study.

Researchers are supposed to submit their research proposals at the following link address: https://iecmanager.org/institution/283The composition of the Institutional Ethics Committee (Human studies) for Intervention studies,

Researchers are supposed to submit their research proposals at the following link address: https://iecmanager.org/institution/283 and follow same instructions as mentioned in submission to Institutional Ethics Committee (Human studies) for Observational Studies.

The Institutional Ethics Committee (Human studies) for nursing courses in JIPMER College of Nursing was constituted in 2019. The major responsibility of IECs is to protect the rights, safety, and well-being of the research participants.

Institutional Bio-Safety Committee (IBSC) of JIPMER is a registered and accredited committee of Dept. of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. As per guidelines of DBT, IBSC primarily streamlines and facilitates the research dealing with genetically modified organisms (GMOs), living modified organisms (LMOs) and recombinant-DNA (rDNA) materials.

In India, GMOs and products thereof are regulated as per the “Rules for the manufacture, use/import/export and storage of hazardous microorganisms/ genetically engineered organisms or cells, 1989” (commonly referred as Rules, 1989) notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India under the Environment (Protection) Act (1986). These rules are implemented by MoEF, the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology and the State Governments through the six competent authorities notified under the Rules which are as follows:

1. Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RDAC)
2. Institutional Biosafety Committee (IBSC)

iii. Review Committee on Genetic Manipulation (RCGM)

1. Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC)
2. State Biotechnology Coordination Committee (SBCC)
3. District Level Committee (DLC).

While the RDAC has advisory in function, IBSC, RCGM, and GEAC are involved in regulatory functions. SBCC and DLC are responsible for monitoring the activities related to GMOs in state/district level. RDAC, RCGM and GEAC are constituted at the central level by DBT and most. IBSCs of all organizations are working in the area of GMOs, SBCC in all states and DLCs in districts, wherever necessary.

Nursing Research Monitoring Committee (NRMC) was constituted in 2015 and reconstituted in 2018. The purpose of Nursing Research Monitoring Committee (NRMC) is to increase the quality of nursing research, which is undertaken in College of Nursing, JIPMER and make it worth publication in indexed national and international journals. 

Functions

The committee has been constituted to review the thesis of MD/MS/DM/MCh/Ph.D./M.Sc. courses for plagiarism, suggest changes to the candidates to edit the content that have been copied verbatim and approve it when there is no evidence of plagiarism.

The JIPMER Research Division initiated an additional intramural funding opportunity as innovation and development projects (IDP) in the year 2019 to encourage faculty member to enable and nurture technological and product developmental capabilities concerning healthcare system and modern teaching methods. Furthermore, IDP is not a usual research grant and is primarily supports innovative products and technologies addressing unmet needs.

Introduction

Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) seeking to be a model for health systems in India through innovations in education, patient-oriented research, population health and service excellence is functioning with the mission of developing compassionate and ethically sound health professionals to provide service of the highest order across the health care continuum. Hence with the objective of getting involved in innovative researches, JIPMER has constituted Institutional Committee for stem cell research (IC-SCR) in August, 2019 to conduct regular meetings for reviewing the stem cell research proposals and give suggestions to the investigators to make their research scientifically sound before approving them.

Functions

Institutional Committee for stem cell research (IC-SCR) is multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral in composition and is constituted as per the National Guidelines for Stem Cell Research, 2017. The research proposals at JIPMER related to stem cells (animals / humans) need to have the approval of IC-SCR before being submitted to ethics committee for consideration. Under this process IC-SCR will perform mainly the function of consideration of research proposals of JIPMER faculty, residents and PhD scholars for quality improvement and approval. After the approval of IC-SCR, the proposals need to be approved by Institutional animal ethics committee, JIPMER or Institutional Ethics Committee for human studies, JIPMER as required.

The Sponsored Clinical Trial Research Committee takes care of all aspects of sponsored clinical trials and clinical research conducted in JIPMER. This is achieved by conducting regular meetings for reviewing the proposals submitted and to provide suggestions to the investigators. All proposals related to sponsored clinical trials must get the approval of the SCTRC.