# Psychiatric research infrastructure for intervention and implementation in India – TEAMS

> **NIH NIH D43** · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · 2024 · $271,529

## Abstract

7. Project Abstract
India accounts for 15% of the Global Burden of Disease for psychiatric, neurological, and substance use
disorders, greater than in all Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) combined, due in part to an insufficient
number of psychiatrists, a dearth of locally-relevant interventions to meet mental health needs, and a paucity of
research training for professionals to develop, implement, evaluate, and replicate meaningful approaches. There
is an urgent need to strengthen research capacity related to interdisciplinary intervention and implementation
research. We propose to expand sustainable research infrastructure by training (i) early-career researchers
at the graduate and junior faculty levels and (ii) the next generation of senior research mentors. We will
continue our tradition of hands-on, trainee-initiated research as the keystone for our training while fostering
team-based, interdisciplinary approaches focusing on serious mental illnesses and comorbid medical
disorders. Training will incorporate research into disorders common across the lifespan, including
neurodevelopmental disorders epitomized by psychoses and autism as well as neurodegenerative disorders
(dementias). Diabetes mellitus (DM) will be the primary co-morbid medical disorder of interest, not only in view
of the epidemic of hyperglycemia in India, but also because it influences the course of psychiatric disorders of
interest. We will emphasize collaboration with (1) the Government of India through the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR), wherein we will advocate for regulatory revisions to ease the current administrative burden
on intervention researchers; (2) Indian institutions, to further expand the emphasis on implementation science
wherein St John’s Medical College and Hospital will be the central training institution; (3) Indian and US-based
mentors, to enable a team-based framework for addressing cross-disciplinary research; and (4) trainees, to
support investigator-driven mental health research projects, especially those incorporating stigma reduction
strategies and Research Domain criteria (RDoC). Our current proposal updates our decades of research
capacity-building success by (a) emphasizing in-country leadership with our primary Indian collaborator as
Contact PI; (b) expanding capacity-building work to focus on interdisciplinary, team-based approaches; and (c)
broadening training to include senior-level mentors. We have, since 2004, built sustainable research capacity
via continuous D43 grants, training 130 mental health researchers who published 264 peer-reviewed
publications; facilitated a partnership with the ICMR; implemented a novel “Grantathon” model to attract and
scale up research-based training; and supported our trainees in leveraging research grants exceeding
$5,418,000 over the past 6 years. Our proposal is consistent with and complies with the Fogarty International
Center’s Strategic plan.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10885552
- **Project number:** 2D43TW009114-11
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
- **Principal Investigator:** Smita N Deshpande
- **Activity code:** D43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $271,529
- **Award type:** 2
- **Project period:** 2014-06-01 → 2029-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10885552

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10885552, Psychiatric research infrastructure for intervention and implementation in India – TEAMS (2D43TW009114-11). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-01 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10885552. Licensed CC0.

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