Margdarshi Fellowships for Biomedical Research Fellowship Programme in India

The Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance(IA; India Alliance) was officially launched on 9 September 2008 and registered as a charitable trust in India. The organization is an equal partnership between the Wellcome Trust (UK) and the Department of Biotechnology (Government of India).
The Wellcome Trust is a global charity dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust’s breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests. The India Alliance is its first venture internationally where it has partnered with the Government to build capacity not only by providing funding for science but also by training a Grants unit that follows internationally recognized processes.

Margdarshi Fellowship

The format of the India Alliance Margdarshi Fellowship scheme has recently undergone a major revision. Significant changes have been made to broaden its scope. A summary of the changes is provided here.

Eligibility condition: relocation requirement removed

The eligibility requirement of relocation will no longer be applicable to future rounds and interested candidates will be allowed to apply from the institution where they are currently located. However, relocation will remain a prerequisite for the candidates applying from abroad as the program must be based at a host institution in India.

Framework of the research program: Guidelines

The overarching mandate of the program should be to transform the research environment and capabilities at the host institution by identifying new and creative research directions. The participating scientist should be the vehicle for establishing a biomedical research program that is sufficiently different from the ones that exist at the host institution.

The program must be designed to employ innovative approaches for bringing in new expertise in frontier areas, creating new infrastructure, building collaborative networks and training young scientists. It should be able to provide a new impetus to the research environment and must demonstrate the potential to develop into an important centre of research in the proposed field for the wider scientific community.

It is important that correct governance procedures must be followed. These include the distribution of funds, data management, resource sharing, and ownership of the data generated out of the proposed initiative.

Deadlines

This is An Annual Competition
Launch: 15 January 2014
Application Deadline: 4 April 2014
Interview: November 2014

Queries should be sent to margdarshi@wellcomedbt.org

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