India is to invest $17 million over five years in its new National Brain Research Centre (NBRC), which was formally opened on 1 October, to make it a world class neuroscience facility. The NBRC is now trying to foster links with international neuroscience institutes and is appealing to expatriate Indian scientists to take part in the venture.

Richard Nakamura, deputy director of the US National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), who led a delegation to the NBRC in New Delhi last month, has signed a collaborative agreement with the center, as has the Brain Science Institute at Japan's Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN). A similar agreement with the UK Medical Research Council is anticipated.

"These deals will focus primarily on the training of Indian scientists for joint research projects," Manju Sharma, secretary to the Department of Biotechnology, which is funding the center, told Nature Medicine. Specific protocols will be designed at a joint workshop later this year.

"Our aim," says NBRC program coordinator Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, who is slated to become its director, "is to catch up with the international neuroscience field." In next five years she envisions the NBRC as a state-of-art institute with a scientific staff of 200. T.R. Raju, head of neurophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore, whose division is networked with the NBRC, says that the NBRC concept is an excellent one, because no single group in India can afford to buy the necessary research equipment. The NBRC expects to spend around $2 million on extramural research programs.

But repatriating scientists to senior positions could prove problematic. NBRC president, Prakash Tandon, says that salary will be on a par with that received by other government scientists. "We cannot create two salary structures, one for locals and another for expatriates, as this dampens morale," he says. Vijayalakshmi hopes that some researchers could be invited back as visiting faculty "for short time on attractive terms." But Prandon believes that "top scientists, who have earned enough money abroad will want to return and work for their motherland."

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