The ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE) is a permanent premier institute of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) established on July 2, 1999 by merging the Central JALMA Institute for Leprosy (CJIL Field Unit), Avadi with the Institute for Research in Medical Statistics (IRMS), Chennai.
The broad objectives of the Institute cover conducting epidemiological studies, development of human resources in epidemiology and bio-statistics, networking of the various ICMR and non-ICMR Institutes at the national level for epidemiological purposes, and consultancy. The Institute has the distinction of being the WHO Collaborating Centre for Leprosy Research and Epidemiology. The Institute carries out a variety of research activities, which include areas such as interventional studies, health systems research, evaluation of health schemes and disease control programmes, statistical methodology, epidemiological investigations and outbreak science.
The Institute hosts the ICMR School of Public Health that conducts various academic programs. ICMR-NIE is recognized by Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University for PhD in Epidemiology and by University of Madras for PhD in Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Microbiology. The Institute is recognized by the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram for the 2-year Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP-INDIA) leading to Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. The Institute conducts other certificate-level FETPs including 2-year India Epidemic Intelligence Service (India EIS), 2-year FETP Noncommunicable disease Fellowship, and 1-year Intermediate FETP – Noncommunicable disease. The institute is recognized by Periyar University to conduct a 2-year Master degree (MSc) course in Biostatistics. The Institute also runs several online courses in health research and related fields.