First CBR-UK DRI Fellowship awarded

We are pleased to announce that Dr Abhinav Sharma (MRC CoRE) has been awarded a Centre for Brain Research (CBR) - UK DRI Fellowship. 

The UK DRI and the Centre for Brain Research (CBR) at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) announced a landmark international partnership in 2025. In September, the two organisations launched a postdoctoral fellowship initiative aiming to create a dynamic, interconnected research ecosystem and accelerate scientific understanding and innovation in healthy brain ageing. 

Based at the CBR and including a mobility component to support research visits to UK DRI Centres, Abhinav’s Fellowship programme aims to develop scalable tools for early detection and monitoring of cognitive decline and dementia risk in India and the UK. It will combine EEG brain recordings, blood biomarkers, and interpretable artificial intelligence to track cognitive vulnerability and resilience in ageing populations. The work is motivated by India’s growing burden of dementia and metabolic disease – a challenge that the CBR is uniquely positioned to address. Its scientific and clinical relevance also extends to the UK where innovative approaches to monitoring brain health are in high demand.

The Fellowship includes a cross-institutional mentorship arrangement spanning the CBR, the UK DRI, and the MRC CoRE at the University of Oxford. Abhinav will be mentored at the MRC CoRE by Prof Peter Magill (UK DRI Parkinson's Research Centre) and Associate Prof Ashwini Oswal, as well as Dr Nir Grossman (UK DRI at Imperial).

Dr Sharma said: 

“This fellowship is an ideal opportunity for me to help build scalable, biologically grounded tools for cognitive healthcare in real-world settings in India, while also generating insights that are highly relevant to ageing and dementia research in the UK. I am especially excited by the prospect of leveraging my cross-institutional mentoring to strengthen collaborations between CBR, UK DRI and Oxford across neural dynamics, biomarkers, cognitive ageing, and translational neurotechnology. I am grateful to all the senior leaders and mentors for supporting my work and for providing me this opportunity.”

Prof. K.V.S. Hari, CBR Director, said:

“The CBR-UK DRI Postdoctoral Fellowship is part of CBR’s broader efforts to promote international partnerships in aging brain research, and we are pleased to welcome Abhinav to this programme. His focus on building scalable tools for cognitive health in India is precisely the kind of research this Fellowship was designed to nurture. We firmly believe that his contributions will further strengthen the collaborative ties between CBR and UK DRI.”

Prof Peter Magill, UK DRI Group Leader and MRC CoRE Director, said:

“We are delighted for Abhinav. This Fellowship is richly deserved. Abhinav is an outstanding researcher, and a valued colleague and collaborator. We look forward to supporting Abhinav to realise his research ambitions.”