Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant

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ANRF invites early career researchers to be part of the transformative journey in leading the country to the forefront of scientific excellence.

Nature & duration of support:

Research grant up to Rs. 60 lakh plus overheads for a period of three years.
The measures for ease of doing research include flexibility to utilize resources under recurring head; flexibility in manpower recruitment; enhanced travel, contingency and overhead charges; and support for expenses related to open access publications and patent filing charges.
International travel for project related activities is also permitted.
Maximum of 700 grants would be awarded per year across all subject areas.

Note:A one-time relaxation of the following eligibility criteria is accorded for the current call:

The upper age limit of 42 years, with a relaxation of three years for SC/ST/OBC/ Physically challenged and women candidates, will be calculated as on February 01, 2024 instead of “as on date of submission”.
The applicant should have joined the institution on or after February 01, 2022 instead of ‘the applicant is eligible to apply within two years of joining the institution’.

Eligibility:

The applicant should be an Indian citizen. PIO/OCI working as regular employees in any of the public funded and recognized R&D laboratories/institutions in India are eligible to apply as PI in collaboration with an Indian Co-PI, provided they fulfill the eligibility criteria notified by ANRF (ANRF Funding Guidelines for PIO/OCI) The applicant should hold a PhD degree in Science or Engineering or MD/MS/ MDS/MVSc degree.
The applicant must hold a regular academic/research position in a recognized academic institution, national laboratories or any other recognized R&D institution.
The applicant is eligible to apply within two years of joining the institution.
The upper age limit for PM ECRG would be 42 years, with a relaxation of three years for SC/ST/OBC/Physically challenged and women candidates.
Research Associates, Post doctoral Fellows, Ad-hoc faculties, Guest faculties, Visiting Scientists, Consultants, Project Fellows and faculty members whose contract is renewed every year are not eligible under PM ECRG. In respect of cases that are not mentioned above, ANRF reserves the right to determine the eligibility.
Co-PIs are not allowed except in the case of PIO/OCI.
The applicant should not have received YSS, ECR, SRG, CRG (erstwhile EMR) or any other grant of the erstwhile SERB or ANRF.

Mode of application and selection

The Call for applications will be notified through the website www.anrfonline.in. The application should be submitted online at www.anrfonline.in(Note : Already registered PIs with the SERBONLINE portal(www.serbonline.in) may Login using the same credentials).
Selection will be based on the recommendations of Expert Committee.

Termination and transfer of the project

If any Principal Investigator (PI) wishes to terminate the project, they shall inform ANRF immediately with proper justifications. The implementing institute should not incur any expenditure from the date of termination of the project or the date of resignation of the PI. The institute must also arrange for the submission of relevant documents.
ANRF reserves the right to terminate the project at any stage if it is convinced that (i) appropriate progress is not being made (ii) the grant has not been utilized properly (iii) furnishing of false information or suppression of factual information.
Projects sanctioned under PM ECRG cannot be transferred to any other person/s.
Transfer of approved/sanctioned PM ECRG project to another institution will be considered only in the following cases: (i) From private/public/government institution to any other public/government institution (ii) General administrative transfers in government or public funded institutions. Change of institute will not be considered in any other cases.

Other conditions

How to apply online

For online submission of the application the following points may be noted:

Applicants should first register in the ANRF online portal,www.anrfonline.in click here to register
After log-in, applicants are required to fill in all the mandatory fields under User Profile section, which includes Bio-data, Photo, Institute address, etc.
Some of the details of a proposal like Project Title (max 500 characters), Project summary (max 3000 characters), Keywords (max 6), Objectives of the project (max 1500 characters), Expected output and outcome of the proposal (max 1500 characters), Budget (Research Personnel, Consumables, Travel, Equipment, Contingency, Overheads ) have to be entered at the time of proposal submission.
Other relevant information of the proposal has to be uploaded as a single PDF file, not more than 10 MB, as a Technical Document (TD).Download Template

Documents required (in PDF format)