Fellowships & Scholarships
This Scheme has been instituted to identify promising young researchers with innovative ideas and provide them with training and research opportunities in niche areas of basic science, engineering, medicine and agriculture. The goal is to facilitate their transition from mentored to independent research career. CSIR intends to give 100 such fellowships every year to promising fresh PhD holders for working in CSIR laboratories with state-of-art R&D facilities. Though this Scheme is open to Indian nationals, Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI), a certain number (up to 20%) of fellowships may be offered to foreign nationals.
Eligibility: PhD degree holders within 3 yrs of award of PhD degree can apply. Applicants who are about to submit thesis are also eligible, however, if selected, their thesis should be submitted before the expiry of the validity of the award offer. The applicants should have research publications in high impact factor SCI journals. The maximum age limit is 32 yrs, relaxable up to 5 yrs in case of SC/ST/OBC/Physically handicapped and women applicants. Eligible candidates must route their applications through the sponsoring CSIR laboratory. The candidates who have worked for their PhD from a particular CSIR laboratory are not eligible for applying from the same CSIR laboratory under this scheme. Eligible candidates can apply in the prescribed format any time of the year. The selections are made twice a year, usually in June and December. The selections made based upon the presentation of the proposed research project followed by interview by specially constituted Committees.
Fellowship amount: The Fellows are paid a consolidated monthly fellowship of Rs. 50,000/- plus House Rent Allowance (HRA) as per norms. An annual contingency grant of Rs. 3 Lakh is provided and 25% of it can be used for domestic and international travel including per diem expenses. The fellowship is tenable for 2 yrs and extendable for maximum 1 more year based on outstanding performance and recommendation from the Director of the concerned CSIR laboratory.