Biotech PRIDE Guidelines

• The release of Biotech-PRIDE (Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) as 1st of its kind developed by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology.
• India ranks number 4 amongst the top 20 countries contributing to biological databases1. The Government invests a large amount of public funds to generate data in various sectors, including in the biosciences for knowledge generation, to gain deep insights into intricate biological mechanisms and other processes and for translation.
• These Guidelines will be implemented through Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) at Regional Centre for Biotechnology supported by Department of Biotechnology. Other existing datasets/ data centres will be bridged to this IBDC which will be called Bio-Grid.
• This Bio-Grid will be a National Repository for biological knowledge, information and data and will be responsible for enabling its exchange, developing measures for safety, standards and quality for datasets and establishing detailed modalities for accessing data.
• The Biotech PRIDE Guidelines will facilitate this and enable exchange of information to promote research and innovation in different research groups across the country.
• The Biotech-PRIDE (Biotech Promotion of Research and Innovation through Data Exchange) guidelines aim at providing a well-defined framework and guiding principle to facilitate and enable sharing and exchange of biological knowledge, information and data and is specifically applicable to high-throughput, high-volume data generated by research groups across the country.
• These guidelines do not deal with generation of biological data per se but is an enabling mechanism to share and exchange information and knowledge generated as per the existing laws, rules, regulations and guidelines of the country.
• These guidelines will ensure data sharing benefits viz. maximizing use, avoiding duplication, maximized integration, ownership information, better decision-making and equity of access.
• These guidelines are the enabling mechanism for sharing the data publicly and within a reasonable period of time after data-generation, thus the utility of the data will be maximal.
• Resultantly, accrual of benefit of public investment for data generation will not be compromised.
• The PRIDE Guidelines will be helpful to harmonize, synergize and encourage the data sharing for research and analysis in the country and to promote scientific work and foster progress by building on previous work.
• These guidelines will also be advantageous in avoiding duplication and wasteful expenditure of resources on research. Initially, these Guidelines will be implemented through Indian Biological Data Centre (IBDC) at Regional Centre for Biotechnology supported by Department of Biotechnology.

Government also launched the web-portal for submission of Biological data to IBDC. Other existing datasets/ data centres will be bridged to this IBDC which will be called Bio-Grid. This Bio-Grid will be a National Repository for biological knowledge, information and data and will be responsible for enabling its exchange, developing measures for safety, standards and quality for datasets and establishing detailed modalities for accessing data.