Centre proposes sweeping overhaul of health research to tackle India's real disease burden
The Union government has released a draft National Health Research Policy 2026 aimed at restructuring India's health research ecosystem to better align with the country's disease burden and public health priorities. The policy, prepared by the Department of Health Research, is the first unified national framework covering biomedical science, clinical medicine, public health, epidemiology, digital health, health systems, behavioural sciences, and emerging technologies.
The Ministry has invited stakeholder feedback before finalising the policy. It seeks to address long-standing issues such as fragmented research efforts, regional disparities in research capacity, and the slow translation of scientific findings into healthcare delivery and policy.
While India has built considerable scientific capability through institutions like the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), universities, and medical colleges, the policy notes that this capability remains concentrated in a few institutions and states. Research priorities do not always reflect the country's actual disease burden, health-system gaps, equity concerns, or preparedness for future public health emergencies. Administrative and regulatory delays continue to slow down research, even when funding is available.
Key proposals include a system for periodically identifying priority research areas based on disease burden, scientific opportunity, equity, pandemic preparedness, and strategic national interest. This agenda will be drawn up in consultation with states, Union Territories, researchers, health professionals, patients, and community representatives.
The draft also outlines a three-tier governance structure: a National Health Research Stewardship Committee for strategic coordination, the Department of Health Research as the nodal implementing agency, and the ICMR as the scientific and technical lead. States will be expected to integrate research more closely into local health programmes and service delivery.
The policy calls for expanding research infrastructure, strengthening the scientific workforce, reducing administrative and regulatory bottlenecks, and encouraging collaboration among public institutions, academia, industry, and non-profit organisations. It also emphasises wider access to shared research facilities. Ethics, research integrity, data governance, cybersecurity, and community participation are placed at the core of the framework.
Additionally, the policy proposes a shift in how research performance is judged. Instead of relying mainly on publications, citations, and patents, it suggests assessing research by its contribution to policy, clinical practice, indigenous technologies, health programmes, institutional capacity, equity, and societal impact. Long-term national targets are proposed for research investment, medical science PhDs, publications, patents, and approved indigenous health technologies.
