Scholarships India

Introduction to Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship:

The Union Minister Prakash Javadekar has announced on 09-feb-2018 for the implementation of Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship which is the planning of encouraging talented students to go for Research in their own country by providing them incentive in form of PMRF (Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship). This initiative has been taken to retain the best technical minds in the country.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Candidates applying for Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship must have completed B. Tech or Integrated M.Tech or M.Sc. in Science and Technology streams from IISc/IITs/NITs/IISERs/IIITs or must be in final year of the same.
• Candidate must have hold 8 CGPA in the same course.
• The required academic qualification must be completed in the last five years. Candidates exceeding this time limit for completion of the required course shall not be considered for PMRF.

Guidelines for Project abstract:

• The area of the study should clearly be stated in Project abstract and there should be enthusiastic interest and insight on the chosen subject in Project abstract.
• A problem for the study should be clearly formulated in the Project abstract for the evaluation of applicant’s analytical and research skills.
• The topic chosen shall be preferably in cutting-edge technology and science, with focus on national priorities.
• Each proposal should have two referee names, for the Selection Committee (SC) to seek a feedback.
• A limit on the number of PhD students will be applied in each discipline to assure that every disciplines should get the priority to have enough Ph.D. students.

Nodal Institutions (NIs) Appointment:

• One IIT or IISc would act as the Nodal Institute for each subject area..
• Once in two years will be the rotation of NI.
• For the first two years, the National Coordination Committee (NCC) shall decide on the Nodal Institutions.

Method of evaluation of the projects:

• A Central portal would be developed to upload all the projects by students. This Portal will transmit these projects to the Nodal Institutes (NIs).
• The candidates will be required to apply on this Portal for their nomination in Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship, along with their SoP/Project Abstract before deadline.
• Nodal Institute (NI) level – Reviewers would be constituted by NI which will consist of subject matter experts to examine all projects/candidates’ credentials and candidates shortlisted for interview.
• The Nodal Institute will constitute Selection Committee (SC) for each discipline with representation of subject matter experts nominated by each IIT/IISc.
• The shortlisted candidates would be interviewed by the SC within the prescribed time limits. If needed, then interview could also be done on video conference.

Selection and Approval:

The selection process for the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship will be a strict process of two stages with screening by the Reviewers and final selection by the Selection Committee.

This will be done with the below procedure:

• After interview, candidates will be selected by the Selection Committee, constituted by Nodal Institution for each subject area.
• The Selection Committee will also allocate the students to the Institute for the doctoral study, according to the availability of academic and other infrastructure and the interest of the student.
• For selection of the candidates, the IITs/IISc will develop an appropriate algorithm and would link them to potential guides.

Guidelines after selection:

• Each Fellow shall be given deliverable to achieve, at the time of joining each year which will be decided by the Department which the Fellow will be joining.
• The deliverables will be be designed kaccording to the topic selected by the Fellow.
• The performance of the fellows will be reviewed annually by the host institution and the Fellowship shall be renewed next year when deliverables are achieved.
• Fellow could be brought back to the institutional fellowship or even discontinued, If the deliverables are not achieved.

Fellowship Award:

a) INR 5 Cr is planned to be placed with the NCC for the treatment of incidental costs given below.

• Selection cost by the NIs
• Website’s maintenance cost and monitoring system
• Travel cost for the selections
• Annual Convention Costs
• Cost of meetings

Above points are the administrative costs to be met, from the Scheme funds.

b) The fellowship for the Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship:

Moreover, INR 2 lakhs per year (total Rs. 10 lakh) will be research grant allowed to each fellow.

c) The fellowship tenure is five years for B. Tech. students and four years for students from background of integrated courses.

Others:

a) At the end of 4th year in research the performance of each student will be reviewed by the institutions to decide whether the student would be eligible to gain fellowship for the 5th year.

b) Students from the Post Graduation background are asked to complete the PhD programme in 3 years.