Amrita Centre for Advanced Research in Ayurveda (ĀCĀRA) is a new initiative of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham at the Amrita School of Ayurveda located in the Amritapuri Campus. ĀCĀRA is inspired by the vision of Amma to provide a scientific backing for traditional medical practices and pave the way for the development of an evidence based Integrative approach to health care. Ayurveda is being increasingly accessed by people world over and has an unbroken continuity in its practice in India. However, it remains officially unrecognised outside India and faces challenges in its development in India due to paucity of rigorous research and scientific evidence that can vouchsafe the safety and efficacy of its clinical interventions. The aim of ĀCĀRA is to nurture the research culture in the academic environment of Ayurveda by improving the quality of Post Graduate and Doctoral Research programs to generate high impact research publications. ĀCĀRA also aims to nurture collaboration between researchers in the field of Ayurveda and modern science to gain better understanding of the basic concepts, mechanism of action and clinical outcomes of Ayurvedic treatments. ĀCĀRA aspires to create a platform to facilitate dialogue between practitioners of biomedicine and Ayurveda and conduct research studies to develop Integrative Medical Care guidelines as well as a model centre for Collaborative Integrated Health Care. ĀCĀRA will also engage in collaborative research with scientific organisations and universities worldwide to enable global acceptance of Ayurveda.
