Concept of Virtual Trainees and Jobs
Virtual jobs/training holds the promise of resolving the current paradox of declining drug discovery output in the <93>omics<94> era, by enabling reuse of tools, methods and data in an unbounded collaborative environment.
CRDD calls for contribution from people with training in scientific research to share their research work and to offer their services to the community. CRDD's objective is to cut down on the cost and time taken for drug discovery.
Lack of Manpower: Most of the research/academic institutes and universities in developing countries like India are unable to attract and retain talent. This is primarily because of the poor salary offered and because of the lack of sophisticated infrastructure in comparison to that in developed countries. Lack of manpower is one of the major factors for poor performance of research organizations involved in drug discovery.
Summer Trainees: Students often find it difficult to get placements for training (short/long/summer training) which is mandatory requirement for getting a degree. This is because a country like India has only a limited number of institutes/companies in comparison to the existing demand<97>which is growing every academic session.
Unemployed Youths: While on one hand we bewail the "lack of manpower", it is an unpalatable fact that many educated youngsters do not have appropriate jobs. There is obviously a gap between what the employers require and the level of knowledge or expertise the youth have. Proper training could well reverse the current scenario.
Bridging Gap: CRDD is designed to tap unused but trained manpower and to use it for developing computational resources for the process of drug discovery. CRDD invites professionals/researchers/ scientists/ students to volunteer services. Their pooled analytical capabilities and ability will easily solve problems that occur during the process of drug discovery.
CRDD also suggests a way to meet the almost insatiable need for trained manpower.
- Virtual Trainee: Despite need for manpower, research organizations appear to be unable to accommodate trainees. This may be due to a number of reasons including,
i) Logistical problems
ii) Inability of the trainees to complete the challenging task within the allotted period
iii) Trainee inexperience or lack of expertise
The CRDD team is working on designing a virtual training programme for those working in the field of informatics related to drug design. The trainee can select a problem proposed on CRDD portal or choose a new, albeit related, problem for the training programme. The trainee is free to work from any location of choice--including in the parent college/university.
All significant contributions made by the trainee will be posted on CRDD portal with due credit including publication of the trainee<92>s thesis.
CRDD also invites ALL interested students, and not just those required to undertake summer training etc., to join the virtual training programme at CRDD.
CRDD may also pay a token amount for significant contributions and issue a certificate to significant contributors. - Virtual Jobs CRDD team is working on the concept of <93>virtual jobs<94>. The unique feature of this would be that the physical presence of the person handling a task would not be required. Effectively this means that a person may work for CRDD from any location on the globe and work convenient hours. The progress of the task will of course be periodically evaluated by CRDD committee.
You may also contribute to CRDD by providing important information to documentation.