The Expression of Interest (EoI) No. TBacc/2025/1 invites proposals from eligible organizations and institutions for the development and evaluation of investigational products, tools, and solutions aimed at addressing tuberculosis detection, treatment, and prevention. Issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), this call seeks to advance promising innovations that have already demonstrated proof of concept and are positioned for further research, testing, or implementation.

Overview

This EoI is structured to support two distinct categories of work: the development of new investigational products, tools, or solutions, and the evaluation of such products or related implementation and operational research. Proposals are invited under the diagnostic, treatment, or preventive categories for tuberculosis. All submissions must follow the prescribed format and demonstrate a clear public health rationale, innovation, and potential for scalability at the national level.

Research Areas and Activities

Proposals may address one or more of the following categories:

• Diagnostics: Novel technologies, tests, or platforms for tuberculosis detection, including study design, sample sources, reference tests, analytical studies, and quality controls.
• Treatment and Prevention Drugs: Product characterization, animal efficacy studies, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics studies, dose ranging, toxicity studies, chemistry, manufacturing and controls, and other applicable preclinical studies as per the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019.
• Implementation and Operational Research: Studies addressing critical gaps in the health delivery system, including intervention description, implementation strategy, stakeholder roles, process evaluation, and outcome assessment.

Eligibility and Technology Readiness Level Requirements

• For development of investigational products (Annexure-1): The product, tool, or solution must be at least Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 and must have already established proof of concept. Proposals below TRL 3 will not be considered.
• For evaluation of investigational products and implementation/operational research (Annexure-2): The product, tool, or solution must be at least TRL 5.
• Eligible applicants include academic institutions, NGOs, professional bodies, private organizations, and other types of organizations.
• Applicants must demonstrate relevant core expertise, technical strengths, past experience in similar projects, and any collaborations with government, academic, or international agencies.

Application Process and Submission Formats

Applicants must submit a concept note using the appropriate format based on the nature of the proposal:

• Annexure-1 (Concept Note Format 1): For development of investigational products/tools/solutions. Requires general information about the organization, contact details, proposal details including technology description, public health utility, work done so far, team and infrastructure, action plan and methodology, timelines, expected outcomes, risks, and a financial proposal.
• Annexure-2 (Concept Note Format 2): For evaluation of investigational products and implementation/operational research. Requires a structured summary, rationale, research questions, objectives, detailed methodology by domain (diagnostics, clinical trials, or implementation research), project implementation plan, expected deliverables, references, details of preliminary work, team skills and experience, institutional support and facilities, and a financial proposal.

Applicants must review and agree to all terms, conditions, roles, and responsibilities as outlined by ICMR. The authorized signatory must declare that all information provided is true and correct.

Budget and Financial Proposal

A detailed activity-wise budget must be submitted as part of the proposal. The budget should be prepared in accordance with ICMR guidelines available on the ICMR website. Justifications for all sub-headings under the budget must be provided in detail, including manpower, consumables, contingencies, and travel. The financial proposal should specify the amount and nature of funding support expected from ICMR.

Deadline and Timeline

The EoI document is dated 02/06/2026. Applicants should refer to the official ICMR website or contact the relevant authorities for specific submission deadlines and further instructions.