Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship

The Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme is aimed at attracting the talent pool of the country to doctoral (Ph.D.) 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

1. PMRF Granting Institutions and Seat Allocation

The institutes which can offer PMRF will be:

• all IITs
• all IISERs
• IISc, and
• Central Universities/NITs offering science and/or technology degrees which appear in the list of top 25 institutes in the NIRF ranking (overall) in the previous year.</li.

Each PMRF granting institute is allotted PMRF seats every year according to the following rule:

• A PMRF Granting Institute appearing in top 10 NIRF ranking (overall) gets 3.5% of the existing PhD students strength on 1st May of the respective year as PMRF seats,
• A PMRF Granting Institute appearing in top 11-25 positions in the NIRF ranking (overall) gets 2.5% of the existing PhD students strength on 1st May of the respective year as PMRF seats, and
• Remaining PMRF Granting Institutes get 1.5% of the existing PhD student strength on 1st May of the respective year as PMRF seats.
• In case the total PMRF seat requirement for a particular year exceeds 1000, the above percentages will be scaled down proportionately so that the total seat requirement does not exceed 1000.

2. The applicants for the PMRF should:

Direct entry channel

The applicant should have satisfied one of the following criteria in the preceding three years from the date of submission of the application :

• completed or be pursuing the final year of four (or five) year undergraduate or five year integrated M.Tech. or 2 year M.Sc. or five year undergraduatepostgraduate dual degree programs in Science and Technology streams from IISc/IITs/NITs/IISERSs/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 year integrated or dual degree programs, if separate CGPAs/CPIs are awarded for UG and PG parts of the program, the CGPA/CPI of the UG part (first four years) will be considered.

OR

• completed or be pursuing the final year of four (or five) year undergraduate or five year integrated M.Tech. or five year integrated M.Sc. or 2 year M.Sc. or five year undergraduate-postgraduate dual degree programs in Science and Technology streams from any other Institute/University recognized in India, not covered in 1(a) above. These candidates should have secured a minimum CGPA of 8 or equivalent apart from a minimum score of 650 in the respective GATE subject.

OR

• qualified GATE and be pursuing or have completed M.Tech./MS by research at one of the PMRF Granting 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. For 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.

Lateral entry channel

To apply for PMRF through this channel, the candidate must satisfy all of the following criteria:

1. The candidate should be pursuing Ph.D. in one of the PMRF granting institutions. Further, he/she should have completed at most 12 months in the PhD programme if he/she joined the programme with a Master’s degree; and should have completed at most 24 months in the PhD programme if he/she joined the PhD programme with a Bachelor’s degree. The relevant period of 12 months or 24 months will be counted from the date of admission in the PhD programme till the date of application for lateral entry. A candidate can be considered at most twice through lateral entry channel PMRF. In case of Integrated M.Tech/MSc and PhD programmes, the candidate will be eligible to apply within 12 months of the date of satisfying the Master’s degree requirement.
2. The candidate should have completed at least four courses in the PhD programme, each of which should be a full-semester course, and obtained aggregate CGPA of 8.5 (out of 10) or higher.
3. The PMRF Granting Institute, in which the student is enrolled, makes a strong recommendation for the candidate and uploads the relevant information on the PMRF web-portal. This includes a research proposal and soft copies of publications (which could include those under submission).
4. Candidate continues work only in the host institute and transfer to another PMRF eligible institute is not allowed. Further, once enrolled in a PhD programme through lateral entry, the candidate cannot be considered for direct entry channel in a subsequent year

To access the List of Eligible Institutes for Qualifying Degree, click here.

Broad Disciplines & Nodal Institutes

Admission under the PMRF will be made in 18 broad disciplines. For each broad discipline one IIT or IISc will coordinate the admission process (review applications, shortlist applicants, constitute selection committees and hold final selections) and will be referred to as the Nodal Institute for that broad discipline.

To access the list of broad disciplines along with the respective nodal institution, click here.

Fellowship

The following would be the fellowship for the PMRFs:

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. students. Industry participation in the PMRF programme would be explored through CSR funding so as to enable industry to sponsor maximum number of fellows.

How to apply

Eligible applicants are to submit an abstract online at PMRF website. The requirement for a project abstract is aimed at assisting the selection committee to judge research and analytical capability of the applicant.

• Project abstract should clearly articulate the area of the study and should display keen interest and insight on the subject chosen.
• The Project abstract should formulate a problem for the study which would be used for assessing the applicant's analytical and research skills.
• The topic chosen shall be preferably in cutting-edge technology and science, with focus on national priorities.
• The abstract should be original in applicant's own words, provide formulation and other technical details of the problem. Evaluation of the abstracts will be an important component in the final selection of applicants for the PMRF.

An applicant may apply for more than one combination of broad discipline and institute. An applicant will be required to provide preferences in case the applicant wishes to apply for more than one combination of discipline and institute.

An applicant can apply two times provided all eligibility criteria are met each time.

An application fee of Rs 1000 is to be paid.

Selection Process

The selection process for the PMRF will be a rigorous two stage process with screening by the Reviewers and final selection by the Selection Committee for each broad discipline to ensure selection of the best talent.

The shortlisting and selection will be done in the following manner:

• Each Nodal Institute (NI) will have a team of experts who will assess the applications and prepare a shortlist of applicants for written test and/or interview at the Nodal Institute.
• Shortlisted applicants will be called for a written and/or interview at the Nodal Institute.
• Final selection of shortlisted applicants will be made based on the performance in the interview
• Each NI would first indicate whether the candidate has to appear in the written test or not. For PMRF 2018 there is no written test for any NI.

Source and for more information : PMRF website