Known for its focus towards salutogenesis in medical sciences and for its innovative and pioneering work in introducing music therapy in to medical care, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth University, has entered into an MoU for a collaborative doctoral program in music therapy with the IMC University of Applied Sciences, Krems, Austria one of the Austria’s leading international universities of Applied Sciences, a world leader in many aspects such as business, health and life sciences. A delegation from SBV headed by the Vice-Chancellor Dr KR Sethuraman along with Dr N. Ananthakrishnan, Dean, Research and Allied Health Sciences, Dr Vellore A R Srinivasan, Registrar and Dr Sumathy Director, Center for Music Therapy Education and Research, SBV were invited by the IMC University of Applied Sciences, Krems, Austria during the inaugural ceremony of the Josef Russel Center for Personalized music therapy set up by the Austrian Government and the other partner hospitals and companies with a grant size of 1.75 million Euros. During the function, Dr Karl Ennsfellner, CEO and Dr Gerhard Tucek, Head of Therapeutic Sciences of the Josef Russel Center for Personalized Music Therapy signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of IMC Krems and Vice-Chancellor Dr KR Sethuraman and Dean Dr N Ananthakrishnan signed on behalf of SBV. The MoU was for collaboration between the two institutes for the PhD course in Music therapy. VC, Prof. Sethuraman, indicated that this collaborative doctoral program in music therapy will stimulate innovative academic dialogue between researchers, experts, students and music therapy practitioners for the benefit of patients. Registrar, Dr Vellore AR Srinivasan released the service contract for this collaborative doctoral program. This MOU aims at long term collaboration to promote novel methods in the form of music therapy as a salutogenic approach. The Center for Music Therapy Education and Research of SBV will accept PhD research scholars from the IMC University of Applied Sciences, Krems, Austria. Both the universities are keen on taking forward this collaboration beyond music therapy to other areas such as exchange of undergraduate scholars, observership for the undergraduate and postgraduate students of music therapy and collaboration in nursing education besides research. As a follow-up, the first batch of research scholars from IMC Krems is expected to join this program at SBV immediately. Dr Adithan, Director, Central Inter-Disciplinary Research Facility of SBV plans to send high profile speakers from SBV from the departments of medicine, pharmacology and biotechnology to the world-class “International Life Sciences Meeting” to be held in IMC Krems during April. 5-6- 2017
