Doing a PhD - Here's what you need to know | indiabioscience.

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Inspired by many stories of scientific discoveries, a career in research is the first priority for majority of students joining college. That first
priority, over the next couple of years, gets changed for many when there is a general lack of awareness/guidance about national fellowship
programmes compounded with the reality of having an immediate job, to shoulder the responsibilities of their families, comes into picture.
This article attempts to bridge that awareness gap, and outline the opportunities for research, to benefit any student who aspires to begin a
career in research and stay close to science.
Developing into an independent scientist and address scientific questions, in pursuit of solutions to the fundamental problems, requires
sufficient training and skills. Acquiring and honing of those skills happens during ones PhD work, and thus enrolling into a PhD programme
is the first step in that process.
Getting a PhD admit begins with an entrance exam followed by interviews. Now, let us have a look into the entrance tests that qualifies one
for getting fellowship, and securing a place for PhD interview. These entrance exams can be classified into two categories: ones that are
conducted by CSIR, DBT & ICMR at the all India level, and the ones which are institution specific. While the first option will help to have
ones own fellowship without depending on the institute they register for PhD, in the later case, the host institute will pay the selected
students.
Now you must be wondering about at least some of the following things in your mind: questions related to - types and number of fellowship
programmes that are available, details - from announcement of examinations to declaration of results, and the opportunities that opens-up
after qualifying those examinations. Its essential to be aware of them, and so let us address them one by one.
Fellowship programmes:
CSIRs NET, DBTs BET, GATE and ICMR-JRF exams are the four major all India exams that lead to fellowship tenures as JRF or PhD
student in any institute in India. Each of the above mentioned fellowship programmes has its own procedures for successful activation.
Being aware of the important dates, eligibility criteria and the application process is very crucial to be successful.
(i)

CSIR NET (National Eligibility Test)

1.

Conducted twice a year

2.

Eligibility: Masters student in Life science & Engineering students in their final semester. Refer the site for detailed information.

3.

Applications are open after the declaration of results for the previous exam.

4.

Exam (Multiple Choice Questions) are conducted in June and December

5.

Fellowship: JRF: Rs.16K + HRA /month & SRF: Rs.18K + HRA /month + Rs.20K/year as contingency grant.

6.

Site to visit: http://csirhrdg.res.in/

(ii)
1.

DBT BET (Biotechnology Eligibility Test)

Conducted once in a year

2.
Eligibility: Masters student & Engineering students in their final semester in the Biotech & Biotech related areas. More details can be
found in the site.
3.

Forms are released during January-February & Exam is conducted in April

4.

Fellowship: JRF: Rs.16K + HRA /month & SRF: Rs.18K + HRA /month + Rs.30K/year as contingency grant.

5.

Site to visit: http://oasis.mkcl.org/bet/StaticPages/HomePage.aspx

(iii)
1.

GATE (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering)

Conducted once in a year

2.
Eligibility: Important think to note pre final year Engineering students are not eligible to appear in GATE 2012 (Host Institute for
2012 Exam: IIT-Delhi)

2012 Exam: IIT-Delhi)

3.

Forms are released during September-October & Exam is held on second Sunday of February (each year).

4.

Fellowship: JRF: Rs.16K + HRA /month & SRF: Rs.18K + HRA /month + Rs.30K/year as contingency grant.

5.

Site to visit: gate.iitd.ac.in/GATE/

(iv)

ICMR (Indian Council for Medical research)

1.

Conducted once in a year

2.

Eligibility: M.Sc./M.A. or equivalent degree

3.

Forms are released March & Exam is held every July.

4.

Fellowship: JRF: Rs.16K + HRA /month & SRF: Rs.18K + HRA /month + Rs.20K/year as contingency grant.

5.

Site to visit: http://www.icmr.nic.in/jrf.htm

In addition to the above mentioned fellowship programmes, the following fellowships are given on the basis of ones merit.
(i)Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Fellowship awarded by CSIR
1.

Eligibility:

a)

Top 15 Rank CSIR-NET qualified candidates of the preceding year.

b)

Top 5 GATE score holders in each of the above disciplines, of the current year.

c)

Top 3 students in each of the above disciplines of integrated MS programme of IISERs, of the current year.

d)

IIT graduates of current year with CGPA 9.5 & above

e)

B. Tech students of IIT who have completed 3rd year with 9.5 CGPA & above

2.

Fellowship: Rs.20K + HRA /month (1 st & 2nd year) and Rs.24K + HRA /month (from 3rd year) + Contingency grant of Rs.70K/year.

3.

Site to refer: http://csirhrdg.res.in/spm.htm

(ii) INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research) Fellowship awarded by Department of Science
and Technology
1.
Eligibility: 1st Rank holder in Post Graduate level examinations in Basic/Natural Sciences or 1 st Rank holder at Under-Graduate level
examination in Engineering Sciences. Also check the site for list of non-eligible categories.
2.

Fellowship: Rs.16K + HRA /month (1 st & 2nd year) and Rs.20K + HRA /month (from 3rd year) + Contingency grant of Rs.25K/year.

3.

Site to refer: http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/fellowship.html

Opportunities that comes with the fellowships:

Securing any of the above mentioned fellowships will make one eligible to apply for PhD programmes in institutes that dont hold a separate
entrance test for PhD admission. Though GATE qualification is mainly considered for getting into M.E/M.Tech/M.S Programmes, it must
be noted that one can become a GATE-JRF fellow if he/she successfully registers for PhD in any of the CSIR labs (say CCMB), and all IITs
accept applications for PhD from GATE qualified students. While top 100 DBT-BET qualified students are eligible to register for PhD for
any of the Indian Institutes, the next 100 are eligible for the same but only in the DBT specified institutes. Overall, fellowships are
activated upon successful registration for JRF/PhD positions.
Options apart from fellowships:

Options apart from fellowships:

Fellowships are one of the many ways to register for a PhD. Many research institutes conduct their own entrance exams for PhD admission.
It must be realised that getting into PhD programmes can be done at different time points after ones college education (i.e. after bachelors
or after masters degree). While Life science students at bachelors stage are eligible to apply for Integrated PhD programmes, Engineering
and Life science masters students are eligible to apply for direct PhD programmes in the Institutes that hold separate exams for
Integrated-PhD and PhD respectively.
National Centre for Biological Sciences has already initiated the application process to conduct the entrance test for enrolling student into
the next years PhD programme (http://www.ncbs.res.in/admissions2012.html). Indian Institute of Science (IISc, Bengaluru) holds
entrance test apart from accepting application from the student qualified through NET/GATE/BET, and has ones own fellowships to carry
out research.
This is the right time to start looking at these opportunities and below is the list of some of the research institutes in India where one can
apply for PhD. Now, its time for you to mark your calendars!

-- Manoj Kumar S and Aman Chauhan

Some of the top Institutes

IISc (Indian Institute of Science Bangalore)

www.iisc.ernet.in
NBRC (National Brain Research Centre)
www.nbrc.ac.in
NII (National Institute of Immunology)

www.nii.res.in
BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Center)
www.barc.ernet.in/

TIFR (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research)

www.tifr.res.in

NCBS (National Centre for Biological Sciences)

www.ncbs.res.in

JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

www.jnu.ac.in

AIIMS (All India Institute for medical Sciences)

www.aiims.ac.in

JNCASR (Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research)

www.jncasr.ac.in/

CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology)

www.ccmb.res.in/

CDFD (Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics)

www.cdfd.org.in/

ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology)

www.icgeb.org/

IGIB (Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology)

www.igib.res.in/

IIT (Indian Institute of Technology)

IISER (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research) -

www.iiserpune.ac.in/ (amongst others)

CFTRI (Central Food Technological Research Institute)

www.cftri.com/

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