INSPIRE Fellowship 2016

What is INSPIRE Fellowship 2016?

INSPIRE Fellowship 2016 aims to attract, attach, retain and nourish talented young scientific Human Resource for strengthening the R&D foundation by offering doctoral INSPIRE fellowship in the age group of 22-32 years in both basic and applied sciences, including engineering and medicine. It offers assured opportunity for post doctoral researchers through contractual and tenure track positions for 5 years in both basic and applied sciences areas through an INSPIRE faculty scheme. 

Who can apply for this scholarship ?

1st rank holders of M.Sc. in Science stream & M. Tech. in Applied stream between age group of 22 to 32 years.

Essential

• Indian citizens and people of Indian origin including NRI/PIO status with PhD (in science, mathematics, engineering, pharmacy, medicine, and agriculture related subjects) from any recognized university in the world,
• Those who have submitted their PhD Theses and are awaiting award of the degree are also eligible. However, the award will be conveyed only after confirmation of the awarding the PhD degree.
• The upper age limit as on 1st July 2016 should be 32 years for considering support for a period of 5 years. However, for SC and ST candidates upper age limit will be 35 years.
• Publication(s) in highly reputed Journal demonstrating research potential of the candidate.

Desirable

• Candidates who are within top 1% at the School Leaving Examination, IIT-JEE rank, 1st Rank Holder either in graduation or post-graduation level university examination (which are used presently for identifying INSPIRE Scholars at under-graduate level and INSPIRE Fellows for doctoral degree)

How can you apply ?

Eligible candidates, either in Direct (A) or Nomination (B) mode, should apply only through online. Please visit the website: www.online-inspire.gov.in and follow the process prescribed therein.

After submission of online application, the candidate must obtain a print of the application thus submitted and send along with necessary support documents to The Executive Director, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110002 on or before 31st August 2016.

Applications

• Three routes i.e. Direct, Nomination and Institution mode are available for applying by the eligible candidates,
• Candidates, who intended to apply Direct or Nomination Mode, may apply online only. Application Formats with detailed guidelines are also available at the websites: www.inspire-dst.gov.in for information. To apply ONLINE, please visit the website: www.online-inspire.gov.in and follow the process prescribed therein. After successful submission through ONLINE, the candidate must obtain a print of the application thus submitted.
• Under `Institutions Mode’, candidates may directly approach reputed academic institutes and the host academic Institute shall be required to adopt their own internal process and mechanism as available before forwarding names of shot-listed candidates for final selection by the Apex Committee.
• Nominations from academic institutions or Industry R&D through Vice-Chancellors/ Directors of Institutions/ Head of Institutions/ Presidents and Fellows of Science Academies or Eminent Scientists from India and Abroad based on personal knowledge. Nominations to be sent to Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi.
• Eligible candidate who wishes to consider in “Direct” and “Nominated” route, may also send applications directly to Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi for consideration.

Terms and Conditions

 Method of Selection

• Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi in coordination with DST will be implementing this INSPIRE Faculty Scheme up to the selection of candidates for awarding INSPIRE Faculty Award.
• A two-tier selection process i.e. Discipline-based Expert Committee in case of candidates under `Direct’ and `Nomination’ routes and Institutional level short-listing in `Institutional route’ followed by final selection by the Apex Level Committee.
• Discipline-wise committees of INSA would evaluate and screen the candidates who apply on Direct and Nominated Routes without support from host-institutions.
• Reputed academic institutions enjoying the status of Centre of Excellence like IITs, IISc, IISERs, TIFR, CSIR Laboratories etc. and Central & State Universities selected under PURSE scheme of DST could employ their own internal processes to short-list candidates and submit the list for final selection by the Apex Committee.
• The Apex Committee shall finally select short-listed candidates for offering INSPIRE Faculty Award under this Scheme and decision of the Apex Committee for selecting candidates in this Scheme shall be the final.
• Candidates, who have not identified host institutions at the time of their application, should do so immediately after their final selection. All selected candidates should avail the INSPIRE Faculty Award within 3 months of their final selection.

Number of INSPIRE Faculty Award per year

• The Scheme provides a provision of maximum 1000 INSPIRE Faculty Awards per year subject to rigorous and transparent criteria basis met by the potential aspirants.

Amount & Duration of each INSPIRE Faculty Award

• Each selected INSPIRE Faculty shall be eligible to receive a consolidated amount equivalent to the scale of the Assistant Professor of an IIT as Fellowship amount. In addition, a Research Grant of Rs 7 lakh per year for 5 years shall also be provided to each successful candidate.
• The INSPIRE Faculty Award is for a maximum period of 5 (five) years.
• Each INSPIRE Faculty Award shall be regulated as per the guidelines available at the website: www.online-inspire.gov.in . Candidates need to visit the website and the read the Guidelines for reference before applying in INSPIRE Faculty Award Scheme.
• The INSPIRE Faculty is eligible to apply for any competitive grant from agencies during the tenure of the INSPIRE Faculty position and would be favorably considered by DST for future support based on performance and technical merit.

Roles and requirements of Host Institutions

• Host institutions should be encouraged to provide a congenial atmosphere for the awardees to excel in their work, and should view them as potential assets for faculty development.
• Under no circumstances the “INSPIRE Faculty” Award is renewable after 5 years. Host-institutions are expected to consider “INSPIRE Faculty” for permanent positions in due course, subject to meeting institutions’ performance assessment criteria.
• In-breeding by host-institution is generally not encouraged. However, in case host-institutions are willing to nominate their own PhD students under this Scheme, specific justifications and commitment for development of independent directions of research should be clearly delineated.
• Minimum information/ commitment requirements from Host Institutions are:

1. Access to all common infrastructural facilities, acceptable laboratory and office space (independently or on shared basis), computing, library access, etc.,
2. Information on whether desirable new areas/directions of research are being introduced through this scheme,
3. Information on whether the INSPIRE Faculty will be allowed to supervise PhD students, hire research fellows, independently or jointly with a permanent faculty member,
4. Host-institution’s willingness to consider the candidate for a permanent position in due course, subject to meeting statutory requirements.

Last date

1. Eligible students choosing to apply Direct Mode (A), may only apply On-line in prescribed format of Direct Mode (A) to The Executive Secretary, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110002 on or before 31st August 2016.
2. Eligible students choosing to apply Nomination Mode (B), may only apply On-line in prescribed format of Direct Mode (A) to The Executive Secretary, Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi – 110002 on or before 31st August 2016.
3. Under “Institution Mode”, the reputed Institutes or Universities send all relevant papers of preselected candidates to Dr Ruckmani Arunachalam, INSPIRE Program Division, Department of Science and Technology (DST), New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi – 110016 on or before 30th November 2016.

Important documents

Print_Curve-1282.pdf

INSPIRE-Fellowship-Guidelines-April-2016.pdf-1286.pdf

Advertisement-1309.pdf

Important Links

• Original website
• Apply online link