News and Announcements
Dr Soumya Swaminathan joins Ignite Life Science Foundation as Scientific Advisor
A globally recognized physician-scientist in the area of tuberculosis and HIV, Dr Swaminathan brings with her 30 years of experience in research, clinical care, policy and translation of research into impactful programmes. She was most recently Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes at the World Health Organization. Prior to that, Dr Swaminathan was Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (2015 to 2017). In these positions, she brought science and evidence into health policy-making, building research capacity, and forging international partnerships in health sciences.
Welcoming her to Ignite, Dr Shahid Jameel, Scientific Advisor and Founding Member, said: "Soumya is a globally recognised research leader, who will add value to Ignite's scientific advisory board. We will count on her technical expertise and understanding of the health policy and funding networks to promote Ignite's mission of improving the impact of Indian life sciences research. I am pleased to have the opportunity to work with her again.
Dr Soumya Swaminathan said - "I am delighted to join the eminent group of advisors at Ignite and look forward to working with them to drive what I believe is a critical agenda for India - to support the Indian life sciences community to achieve excellence."
ANNOUNCING
IGNITE ACORN-AMR FAST GRANTS 2023
“mighty oaks from little acorns grow”
Planting the seeds of breakthrough solutions for antimicrobial resistance (AMR). LAST DATE FOR SUBMISSION: 15 February 2023
For more details see here.
Ignite announces the sixth edition in the "In Conversation with Ignite" series. This will be on Jan 18th and is with James J. Collins. Shahid Jameel of Ignite will be the Interlocutor.
For more details see here.
EKLAVYA EDUCATION FOUNDATION AND IGNITE LIFE SCIENCE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCE INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL GRANTS FOR YOUNG INDIAN SCIENTISTS
For more details see here.
Announcing the 3 winners of our AgriScience Fast Grants: Anindita Seal, University of Calcutta; Kutubuddin Molla, ICAR NRRI, Cuttack and Pallavolu Reddy, TERI, Delhi...Congratulations!
Ignite announces the fifth edition in the "In Conversation with Ignite " series. This will be on October 21st and is with Prabhavathi Fernandes. Swami Subramaniam of Ignite will be the Interlocutor.
For more details see here.
Anasua Mandal, an MSc Zoology student at BHU has won the first prize for the best question at the last edition of In Conversation.
Anushka Sarkar, an Undergraduate Student at Presidency University, Kolkata won the second prize.
Our congratulations and best wishes to both of them.
First micro-grant announced under the Academic Research Cooperative mechanism
The Academic Research Cooperative is a group of scientists working in a common theme area, e.g. redox biology. By bringing together scientists in disparate areas linked by a shared theme we hope to encourage ideation at the boundaries leading to new questions and experiments. We are pleased to announce our first micro-grant under this scheme to Amit Singh (IISc) and Harinath Chakrapani (IISER, Pune). We wish them the very best. 
Ignite announces Call for Proposals in the area of Agriculture Science. Last date for submission is August 20.
Please click here for details.
Pleased to announce the winners of the two prizes for best questions asked at the last In Conversation event: Anirudh Chellappa of NIMHANS (second time he is winning) and Abhishek Gunasekaran of AIIMS. Congratulations to both of them. See you you all at the next event on Aug 16.
We are pleased to announce that Anirudh Chellappa of NIMHANS and Aditya Parekh of Anant National University have won prizes for the questions at the last edition of "In Conversation". Our congratulations to both for their thoughtful and searching questions!
Dr K K Narayanan seasoned serial AgTech entrepreneur joins the Ignite Scientific Advisory Board
For more details see here.
In conversation with Ignite event: winners of prizes for the best questions.
The event got good traction with 481 registrants from diverse backgrounds and geographies. The recording of the event can be accessed here: https://youtu.be/WvEaIMjp0Bs
We had announced prizes for the two best questions. We were swamped with many high quality submissions and it is impossible to do justice to them. We have chosen Dr Rajashri Kadam of NCBS and Ms Aditi Yadav of St Xaviers Mumbai as the first and second prize winners. Congratulations to them and thank you to everyone who participated and contributed.
Our next event is in April. We hope to see you there.
Ignite announces a new bimonthly series - "In conversation with Ignite", where we will engage eminent scientists in an informal conversational format to learn about their life and work. The series kicks of with Ajit Varki on 28 February 2022.
For more details see here.
Dr. T. S. Balganesh joins Ignite as Scientific Advisor
We are pleased to announce that Dr T S Balganesh is joining Ignite as Scientific Advisor. Dr Balganesh is an experienced drug discovery scientist and has led pharmaceutical R&D and public sector initiatives in Open Source Drug Discovery. We are very happy that he agreed to join us to help us in our mission to promote life science research in India. He is a valuable addition to an already stellar team of advisors. We welcome him on board.
For more details see here.
Sourav Ghosh's picture of the IIT Bombay Campus wins honorable mention in the competition to select the picture of the most photogenic research institute campus in India. His aerial view of the funky buildings amidst the verdant surroundings of the Powai campus backgrounded by Powai lake showcases the IIT Bombay campus: modernity blending into nature, not supplanting it. Vikas holds onto his postion as the person who took the best picture with his submission showing the photogenic IISc campus in Bangalore.
Sourav Ghosh, IIT Bombay
Vikas Navaratne, IISc
Ignite funds research on Antimicrobial Resistance and Neurodegeneration under a FAST GRANTS mode
For more details see here.
Letter to applicants to the Fast Grants Open Call
For more details see here.
Fast Grants Open Call Reviews Complete
From the 271 proposals submitted we have shortlisted 6, after detailed reviews by our Science Advisory Board and External Reviewers. We hope to make a public announcement on this within the next two weeks. Please stay tuned. Follow us on Twitter if you would like to be updated in real-time.
Shrikumar Suryanarayanan, Chairman and co-founder of Sea6 Energy Pvt. Ltd. joins Ignite as Donor.
For more details see here.
Ignite announces an Open Call for Proposals to be funded under a Fast Grants mechanism.
For more details see here.