A baby, mental health and ageing – returning to SIN

With one of the first, hopefully with plenty of the second, and not too much of the third…

Having spent 12 blissful months with my baby, it is time for me to resume my role as the science and innovation adviser in Mumbai. This blog is partly to introduce myself as a new author on this blog, and partly to let you know what I’ll be working on over the next 12 months.

Heading back to work after maternity is one of the most challenging and equally exciting transitions in the life of a new mom. Though one year seems like a long time, reflecting back the past year has just flown by. I rejoined the team just about a month ago and it feels like the world has moved on so much and a huge amount has been achieved. Lucie’s blog  ‘S&IN best bits 2012’ is a good summary of the team’s work but my favourite development is the recent agreement between India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the UK’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) to support innovative UK and Indian businesses to work together on the commercialisation of research in a range of key areas including healthcare and energy. We’ve also had some colleagues leave the team and new faces to replace them – vacant roles are currently advertised on the High Commission website.

While work life is just beginning to sink in (I’m catching up on work lingo), I’m excited to play my part in the bigger scheme of things. Two main projects that I’ll be working on this year concern ‘Ageing’ and ‘Mental Health’. The former is a challenge for countries around the world. The UK is in a period of unprecedented demographic change: the proportion of older people in the population is increasing such that by 2050, 40% of the UK population will be over 50, and 25% over 65. India has the second largest aged population in the world. So studying the dimensions of healthy ageing is of interest to both countries.  Our project agenda will be to bring together a joint UK-India workshop that will help highlight the opportunities for collaborative research work in this area. We are aiming to have the workshop sometime end-August or early September 2013 in Mumbai.

‘Mental Health’ is another area that poses a challenging proposition for both the UK and India. India with its diverse population, excellent clinical researchers, laboratories for exploring several facets of biology, as well as patient led research provides a platform for UK researchers to identify areas for collaborative research. We hope to bring together mental health experts from the UK and India on a common platform to discuss areas of joint working through a two-day workshop. My colleague Sunil has already paid some visits to get this off the ground. Plans for both the ‘Ageing’ and ‘Mental Health’ workshops are underway. For more information about these projects, do watch this space!

Although the best part of my day is reaching home and seeing my baby smile, I certainly look forward to the mornings when I get to wear my hat as a science adviser for western India and plunge into the world of science. It’s going to be another great year for Indo-UK science!