Grants in India

As anywhere in the world, majority of the funding for research in India comes through the government. Much of the funding for life science research is channeled through the Central Government’s Department of Science and Technology-DST and the Department of Biotechnology-DBT. Both DBT as well as DST, have various extramural funding schemes. Other agencies that fund extramural grants include Department of scientific and Industrial research- DSIR, Department of Atomic Energy- DAE, Department of Ocean Development and Earth Sciences and Department of space – to name a few. Apart from these, life science sectors are also funded by Department of Agriculture through the Indian Council for Agricultural Research - ICAR and the Indian Council for Medical Research that falls under the auspices of Department of Health Research.

Many of the funding bodies including DST and DBT, have autonomous research institutes/universities under their umbrella. These institutions receive their core funding through one of the agencies. Each also routes core/intramural funding towards autonomous institutions that fall under the umbrella of a particular agency. For example the IISERs are all MHRD institutions while the NISERs are DAE funded. Similarly ICAR, ICMR and CSIR fund over 20 institutions each all around India. Apart from funding research, the agencies also award small grants for Symposia and workshops. They also award travel grants for attending conferences.

Here, our attempt has been to give you an overview of the way Government research funds are channeled in India. Hopefully, this will help you approach the appropriate agency for grants/funds for your research project.

1. DBT: http://dbtindia.nic.in/index.asp
   
   Life science research (any area), though plant tissue
   Culture, grafting, breeding etc might fall under ICAR

2. DST: http://www.dst.gov.in/
   
   Any branch of science

3. ICMR: http://www.icmr.nic.in/
   
   Biomedical research

4. CSIR: http://rdpp.csir.res.in/csir_acsir/Home.aspx
   
   Through Human Resource development group (HRDG), it funds various extramural grants with focus on scientific applications

5. ICAR: http://www.icar.org.in/
   
   Plant, animal science, horticulture based research areas

6. MoES: http://dod.nic.in/
   
   Ministry of Earth Sciences – funds research in marine biology, oceanography, geophysics among others

7. MoEF: http://moef.nic.in/index.php
   
   Ministry of Environment and Forests
   Extramural funding for ecology projects, including conservation, environmental impact studies, taxonomy, and wildlife management

This section has information on the fellowships and other funding schemes that can be availed of by researchers in India. We thank the Research  Development office (RDO), NCBS for much of the information within this section.

Disclaimer: Grant information, including application deadlines, frequently changes and IndiaBioscience is not responsible for the accuracy of content on the site. If there is a grant of interest to you, we suggest that you contact the agency web site or other contact person to obtain the most up-to-date information. If you find that information has changed, please contact us and let us know.