Pune: The Department of Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences of Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been recognised as a Centre for Excellence by Ministry of AYUSH, declared Nitin Karmalkar, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of SPPU at a press meet on Tuesday.

The department has received a grant of Rs 3.5 crore for three years from Ministry of Ayush, which will be dedicated to building infrastructure for providing equipment for traditional medicine research. It has also received an additional grant of Rs 95 lakh from Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which will cover 15 fellowships for teachers and researchers.

“Traditional medicine has been commonly criticised by questioning its validation of scientific relevance in its product. There is a huge scarcity of highly trained scientists and researchers in the field of traditional medicine. Through this initiative, we are trying to strengthen and bridge ties between traditional and modern medicine, wherein a scholar from modern medicine will be trained in traditional medicine and vice-versa,” said Director of Centre for Complementary and Integrative Health (CCIH) of Department of Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences Bhushan Patwardhan.

The centre has roped in expert consultants from National Centre of Cell Science (NCCS), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Manipal University, National Cancer Institute, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Mayo Clinic in US.

Around 15 candidates will be able to participate in the research programme at the centre. They will also be assigned research projects out of which the best project will be awarded Rs 30 lakh grant by Ministry of Ayush to help them establish their research further.

“The varsity will soon be developing infrastructure to support the research centre. Also, it will provide residential training to selective researchers, teachers and students. Therefore, we will be building accommodation for them,” said Karmalkar.