Newton Bhabha Fund PhD Placement Programme

About Newton Bhabha Fund PhD Placement Programme
The key objective of the PhD Placement programme is to facilitate the capacity building of individuals and create sustainable, long-lasting links between India and the UK through PhD placements, and partnerships. The programme is being implemented in India since 2014 under STEM and Life Sciences subjects. The approach of the programme is scholar centered to ensure that the best possible development experience is provided. It supports in increasing the number of highly trained researchers in the UK and India with international experience, able to contribute to the absorptive capacity for research and innovation and thus bring about economic and social benefits.

Newton Bhabha Fund will be offering opportunity for the UK and Indian PhD scholars to spend a period of their study (2 to 4 months) in Indian and UK higher education institutions respectively.

Inviting Expressions of Interest (EoI) from State or Public funded Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to nominate up to twenty Indian PhD scholars registered with them to apply for Newton Bhabha Fund PhD Placement Programme. These HEIs could be Central/State or Public Universities and/or Institutions with 200 or above registered PhD Scholars.

Eligibility criteria
HEIs can nominate a registered PhD scholar in her/his second or third year of doctoral research.

HEIs to ensure that the following PhD scholars apply directly to the Newton Bhabha PhD Placement Call for Applications and need not get nominated by this process:
1. If the PhD scholar is an INSPIRE Senior Research Fellow of batch 2016, then the scholar can apply directly and if selected, they will be funded by DST (Department of Science and Technology).
2. If the PhD Scholar is pursuing Life Sciences and has cleared national tests such as CSIR/UGC-NET, GATE, BET, ICMR-NET, ICAR-NET, then the scholar apply directly and if selected, will be funded by DBT (Department of Biotechnology).

Women scholars pursuing PhD in public funded HEIs are strongly encouraged to apply.

Stages of Application
• Application: Call for application for PhD Placements will be open on 19th July 2019. Link for the same will be shared with HEIs after receiving EoIs. Institutions’ nominated candidates can apply for the Call. This call will close on 19th September 2019.
• Connecting with UUKi: Nominated candidates may contact Universities UK International (UUKi) who is offering a service to help connect Newton partner country researchers to potential UK partners. Applicants wishing to use this service should complete UUKi’s Partner Request Form. Their partnership request will also be included in UUKi’s Opportunities for Collaboration webpage. After the call closes, the final selection will be made based on the applications. Results will be declared in November 2019.
• Agreement signing: Agreement will be signed between the British Council and Indian HEI institutions stating that Indian HEI will bear funding cost for the final selected candidates of their institute. Refer to ‘Cost Component’ section for funding for more details.
• Cost Component: The British Council will cover the following items for each selected scholar:
• Indian scholars’ bench fees in the UK: Maximum £5,000, where the UK host university cannot waive the bench fees (or consumables costs). The UK host supervisor can apply for this bench fees by stating the amount in the endorsement letter. In addition, applicant must enter this amount in his/her application form. Amount stated in the application form will be considered for funding.
• The Newton-Bhabha Fund will pay Indian scholars’ stipend in the UK @ £1300 per month to cover meals, accommodation and domestic travel.

Indian HEI will cover the following items for each selected scholar:
• Indian scholars’ international return airfares (economy class) as per Government of India (GOI) norms
• Indian scholars’ visa fees
• Indian scholars’ travel insurance as per Government of India norms

This amount is approx. INR 1 lac per scholar.

For British Council India : Purti Kohli at Purti.Kohli@britishcouncil.org