A need was felt to establish a nationally cohesive, interdisciplinary Ph.D. programme in biosciences to expand the scale of generating highly skilled, globally competitive human resource. It was envisioned that the trained human resource produced through this programme would be better equipped to provide bioscience-based pioneering solutions to contemporary problems relevant nationally and globally. The main objective of the proposed programme would be to foster greater academic and research interaction among the institutions of the DBT BRIC (iBRICs), RCB and ICGEB, and to increase the professional networking opportunities for the Ph.D. scholars.
The objectives of the i3C BRIC-RCB Ph.D. programme in biosciences will be catalysed by enrolling highly talented Ph.D. scholars in foundational coursework along with training in high-end technology platforms for the first semester at RCB. The new Ph.D. programme would be on the blueprint of the ongoing RCB Ph.D. programme but with significant novel content, while leveraging the academic and infrastructural strengths of RCB and the iBRICs. The programme will be governed by RCB statutes, ordinances and regulations, while aligning with the latest UGC regulations in terms of eligibility, duration, and coursework credit requirements. The Ph.D. programme would also include a relevant immersion programme (field internship) for an additional three months immediately following the first semester of coursework. This immersion programme is expected to provide practical exposure to the scholars in areas of societal need to enable them to productively integrate into the professional biotechnology enterprise and create a transformative human resource pool that will shape the future. The doctoral research with the respective supervisors in the iBRICs, RCB or ICGEB will follow the coursework and internship.