The Accelerate Vigyan (ANRF) scheme National Post Doctoral Fellowship(N-PDF) aims to identify and support motivated young researchers in India. The objective of the fellowship is to support postdoctoral candidates to do research in frontier areas of science and engineering with a qualified research mentor. The N-PDF is intended to be a first step for researchers, who aspire to become independent investigators.
Eligibility Criteria
The applicants must fulfil the following fulfilments criteria for eligibility to apply for the ANRF-NPDF Validation:
- Citizenship: Be an Indian citizen.
- Education:
- Applicants must have obtained a PhD/M.D./M.S. from a reputed University.
- Applicants who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting the award of the degree will be eligible for the fellowship but shall receive a lower amount till the formal award of the degree.
- Age:
- At the time of the closing date of each call, the age should not be exceeded 35 years.
- For SC/ST/OBC/Physically Challenged/Women candidates, an age relaxation of 5 years.
- One time only: NPDF can be taken only once during the candidate's career.
Mentor Requirements
- The Mentor needs to hold a regular academic/research role with a recognized institution in India.
- The Mentor must have a Ph.D. in Science or Engineering.
- A mentor could supervise two, ANRF-NPDF fellows, at any time
- Mentors must register on the same online portal as well as complete all the required profile details.
Application Process
To apply for the N-PDF, please do the following:
- Online Registration:
- Go to the official website http://anrfonline.in/ANRF/npdf to complete the registration.
- User Profile Completion:
- Once logged in, you must fill in all details including:
- Bio-data
- Passport photo
- Institution address
- Mentor Registration:
- Your proposed mentor must also register and complete their user profile.
- Submission of Project Details:
- You must include the following in the online submission:
- Project Title (maximum of 500 Characters)
- Project summary (maximum of 3000 Characters)
- Key words (maximum of 6)
- Objectives of the project (maximum of 1500 Characters)
- Expected Output and Outcome (maximum of 1500 Characters)
- Upload Research Plan:
- Develop a Work Methodology and Research Plan (maximum of 3 pages and smaller than 10MB).
- This should be uploaded as one PDF file.
- Submission once a calendar year:
- Each applicant can only submit a proposal once! Per calendar year for NPDF, SRG and EMR schemes.
Fellowship Duration
- First Term: The fellowship is a temporary position, with an initial term of 2 years.
- Extension Period: The fellowship can potentially be extended for a further year, depending on research progress. The maximum term available to fellows for tenure is thus 3 years.
Application Deadline
Currently, there is no publicly available information about the application deadlines for the N-PDF scheme.
Key Takeaways
The ANRF-NPDF (Advanced Neuroscience Research Fellowship-National Postdoctoral Fellowship) not only provides opportunities for funding but is also a strategic entry point to help young researchers move to independent careers.
Selected fellows will receive a monthly fellowship and contingency grant and institute overhead giving them the ability to completely focus on their research, full-time.
- Proposals should be aligned with national science and engineering priorities and should be original, relevant, and impactful.
- Choosing a reputable host institute that has a strong infrastructure, as well as a mentor who has a successful research background will substantially strengthen the application.
- Designing their research with an interdisciplinary or translational flavor, especially around as much societal or technological challenges as possible, will gain some consideration by the reviewers.
- All ethical conditions regarding research must be compliant - an applicant or fellow could be eliminated due to plagiarism or misrepresentation as part of the ANRF-NPDF program process at any time stage of the application process or fellowship.
- Applications will be subject to peer-review and screening, therefore in terms of making your proposal compelling, clear, succinct, coherent, and justified in your application is critical.
- Fellows are required to publish in high impact journals and present at national and international conferences.
- Collaborative partnerships with Industries or research institutes are encouraged but not required as part of a mentoring program or annual report.
- The fellowship fosters career development, providing post-doc researchers with the training, mentorship and connections for helping them with their transition to being leaders in research and/or academia.
