Evidence-based medicine is an integral part of medical practice today and facilitates providing medical practitioners with the best available evidence for health care. To comprehend the evidence published in biomedical literature, doctors need to have an understanding of research methods and its principles.

For Postgraduate Medical Students:

Acquiring competency in research methods is an integral part of postgraduate medical training in the country. To ensure that postgraduate medical students acquire the necessary skills, the Board of Governors in supersession of the erstwhile Medical Council of India notified amendments to the Postgraduate Medical Regulations on 11.12.2019 making it mandatory for all postgraduate students to complete an online course in Research Methods to be conducted by designated Institution(s) by the end of the 2nd semester of their course

For Medical Teachers:

Medical teachers have the responsibility of mentoring and training medical students and also carrying out research work and publishing their work as part of their academic pursuit. It is equally important that they too acquire these research skills. To ensure faculty are able to become competent to train medical students and improve their own research capacity, amendments were made in "Minimum Qualifications for Teachers in Medical Institutions Regulations" on 12.02.2020 making it essential for medical teachers to have completed the Basic course in Biomedical Research from designated Institution(s) for their promotions to various teaching designations

The Designated Course

1. The National Institute of Epidemiology of the India Council of Medical Research is the designated institution for the conduct of the ONLINE research methods course for postgraduate students and medical teachers in India.
2. The course allows a flexible time for the participants to register and start the course. However, the course completion requires the participants to appear for an online offsite examination, the timings of which would be notified by the designated institution on their portal from time to time. On online e-certificate would be generated on successful completion of the course and examination. ONLY this document will be accepted as proof of completion of the course.
3. The course schedule, course content, qualifying criteria, registration process and examination details would be available on the website of the designated institution http://nie.gov.in/niecer/bcbr/index.htm. Link for the same is also provided on the NMC