About
The PMRF scheme was announced in the budget 2018-19. It aims to improve the research quality in higher educational institutes and attract the best talent for R&D. A total of 38 institutes in India offer this fellowship including all IITs, IISc Bangalore, IISERs, BHU, DU, JNU, AMU, Jamia Milia Islamia, University of Hyderabad, and NIT Tiruchirappalli. A rigorous selection procedure is undertaken for the selection of candidates.
Coordinating Institute
IIT Delhi is the coordinating institute and shoulders the responsibility of selection and fellowship disbursement.
Eligibility
The candidate must be enrolled in a Ph.D. Program in one of the PMRF granting institutes listed above. He/she must have completed 12 months of Ph.D. registration in case he/she holds a Masters’s degree. At least 24 months should be completed in case of admission to a Ph.D. program with a bachelor’s degree. Candidate must have cleared at least 4 full semester courses in the Ph.D. program with an aggregate CGPA of 8.5 or higher.
Candidates pursuing M.Tech /MS from PMRF granting institute with minimum CGPA or CPI of 8.0, having cleared GATE and selected for Ph.D. may also apply for the scheme.
Application Procedure
The institute in which the candidate is enrolled carries out departmental selections of the students. Students with grades higher than 8.5 are shortlisted by the institute. The shortlisted students are then evaluated on the basis of their publication and other records. A list of selected students is then uploaded on the PMRF web portal along with all other relevant details. Subsequently, the candidate is judged on the basis of his research proposal, Statement of Purpose, publication records, and grades. The whole procedure from the submission of an application to receiving a call letter may take about 30-40 days.
A strong proposal can let you ahead of many who have more publications than you. For example, a candidate with grade 8.6 and one publication equalize the other with grade 9.1 with no publication, and hence both may get selected. The problem dictated in SOP and research proposal must be of national importance. The research proposal must clearly describe how your work will benefit society.
Fellowship
The selected candidates receive a fellowship for a maximum duration of 5 years. In the first and second year, the candidate receives Rs, 70000/- per year with an increment of Rs. 5000/- in the third year. In the fourth and final year, a sum of Rs.80,000 will be awarded to the candidate every year. Apart from this, the fellow receives a research grant of 2Lakh per year for a total of 5 years. PMRF scholarship and obligations continue only for the remaining years of the candidates’ stay in the Ph.D. program.
Deliverables
Each fellow is assigned a task/goal to be achieved by the end of each year. The work is based on the topic selected by the candidate. There is one annual review by the central committee at the end of each year and two internal reviews. The internal review consists of professors from the same institute to which the candidate belongs. If the review committee finds the work satisfactory, the candidate continues to avail the fellowship in the next year. However, if the candidate is not able to achieve the set goals and the panel does not find the work satisfactory, the fellowship is brought down to the institutional fellowship level.
Also, the fellow is expected to teach once a week in a neighborhood ITI/Polytechnic or Engineering college as per the modalities approved by the government. A website has to be created by the fellow where the research work carried out by him/her is uploaded open to all readers.
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