The Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme is aimed at attracting the talent pool of the country to doctoral (PhD) programs of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for carrying out research in cutting-edge science and technology domains, with focus on national priorities.

Eligibility Criteria
The applicants for the PMRF should:

• have completed or been pursuing the final year of four (or five) year undergraduate or five years integrated M.Tech or five years integrated M.Sc. or 2-year M.Sc. or five-year undergraduate-postgraduate dual degree programs in Science and Technology streams from IISc/IITs/NITs/IISERs/IIEST and centrally funded IIITs. These candidates should have secured a CGPA/CPI of at least 8.0 (on a 10-point scale). For applicants in the five years integrated or dual degree programs, if separate CGPAs/CPIs are awarded for UG and PG parts of the program then the CGPA/CPI of UG part (first four years) will be considered or
• have completed or be pursuing the final year of four (or five) year undergraduate or five years integrated M.Tech or five years integrated M.Sc. or 2-year M.Sc. or five-year undergraduate-postgraduate dual degree programs in Science and Technology streams from any other (not covered in a.) Institute / University recognized in India. These candidates should have secured a CGPA/CPI of at least 8.0 (on a 10-point scale) or equivalent till the last semester and have secured a score of 750 or higher in the respective GATE subject. Eligible and interested candidates under this option ‘b’ should register for GATE at the official GATE 2019 website, or
• have qualified GATE and be pursuing or have completed M.Tech. / MS by Research at IISc/IITs/IISERs ( hereafter referred to as host institutions) having a minimum CGPA or CPI of 8.0 (on a 10-point scale) at the end of the first semester with a minimum of four courses. Those candidates who are applying after the first semester, the CGPA or CPI requirement of 8.0 will be based on all the courses, labs, thesis that the candidate has completed. This is applicable to above eligible candidates at the time of application.
  have completed the required academic qualifications in 1 (a), 1 (b) or 1 (c) in the preceding three years from when the application is submitted.

Contours of Project abstract by the eligible aspirants

• The Project abstract should articulate and display keen interest and insight on the subject chosen.
• The Project abstract should formulate a problem which could be used for assessing the applicant’s analytical and research skills.
• The topic chosen should be in frontier areas of science and technology, preferably focusing on national priorities.
• There should be at least two referee names for each applicant, for the Selection Committee to seek feedback from.

Selection and Approval
The selection process for the PMRF will be a rigorous process consisting of Screening by the Reviewers, and final selection by the Selection Committee for each research vertical to ensure competition, standardization, transparency and selection of the best talent. The process may also include written test and/or discussions, if necessary. The allocation of the Institute shall be done in the following manner:

• For each subject area, the Selection Committee constituted by the NI will select candidates after an interview. The allocation of the Institute for the doctoral study would be done by the Selection Committee, keeping in view the choices of the selected candidates and the availability of academic and other infrastructure.
• An appropriate procedure will be developed by the IITs/IISc for selection of the candidates and linking them to potential guides.

Deliverables

• At the time of joining, each Fellow shall be given deliverables to be achieved each year. This will be decided by the assigned guide and Department which the Fellow is joining.
• The deliverables are to be designed keeping in view the topic selected by the Fellow.
• There shall be an annual review of the performance of these Fellows by the host institution and the Fellowship for the following year shall be renewed only if the deliverables are achieved.
• Each Fellow is expected to teach once a week in a neighbourhood ITI/Polytechnic/Engineering College, as per modalities approved by the Government.
• If the deliverables are not achieved, the fellowship could be brought down to the institutional fellowship level or even discontinued.

Fellowship
The following would be the fellowship for the fellows:

• Year 1- Rs.70,000
• Year 2- Rs.70,000
• Year 3- Rs.75,000
• Year 4- Rs.80,000
• Year 5- Rs.80,000
• Apart from this, each Fellow would be eligible for a research grant of Rs.2 lakhs per year (total Rs.10 lakh)
• The tenure of fellowship will be four years for students from integrated courses and five years for B. Tech (or equivalent) students. The selected students who have completed MTech/MS/ME after completing a qualifying BTech, and join PMRF will get 4 years of fellowship.

Note: THE PORTAL FOR ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR PMRF MAY 2019 WILL GO LIVE IN FEBRUARY 2019

For any queries, fellows can contact on
Email ID- support@pmrf-may2019.iith.ac.in
Helpline No- 8330913053

For updates about the application, please click on this link- https://may2019.pmrf.in/