Education ministry plans Rs 14 crore grants for Prime Minister Research Chairs, Rs 4-6.5 crore fellowships

As per the ministry of education’s calculations, each Young Research Fellow, selected under the Prime Minister Research Chair (PMRC) scheme, will get overall support of around Rs 4 crore; Senior Research Fellows, Rs 6.5 crore; and Research Chairs, Rs 14 crore. An empowered committee chaired by the Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA) will handle the PMRC scheme, including the selection of fellows, says an internal concept note on the scheme, accessed by Academia360.

The scheme has been envisioned as a way to tackle ‘brain drain’ by drawing Indian scientists working abroad back to Indian institutions. The concept note describes its mission thus: “To attract and engage distinguished Indian-origin researchers and scientists to strengthen India’s research value chain across 14 priority sectors by embedding them in leading institutions for high-impact research, teaching, and mentorship.”

The scheme was originally intended to support 120 young, senior research fellows and research chairs over five years. The concept note cites a more modest figure – 40 researchers across three categories over the five years from 2025-26 to 2029-30.

However, a source in the education ministry said, “The number of researchers is yet not confirmed and may increase as per the requirement”. The ministry’s “unit cost” estimate for each category, based on 143 researchers, includes expenses under various heads, including fellowship fee, one-time research grant, residential and medical allowance, one-time relocation, and operational costs, including “institute overheads”.

The scheme was first proposed by the ministry at the meeting of the IIT Council – the top body of the Indian Institutes of Technology and chaired by the education minister – in November. The priority sectors included semiconductors, energy sustainability and climate change, artificial intelligence, space and defence.

“The initiative will promote knowledge creation, innovation, and global collaboration, with a focus on frontier areas such as semiconductors, quantum technologies, AI, and clean energy, while enabling long-term capacity building and positioning India as a global research hub,” says the note. The scheme was allocated Rs 200 crore in the Union Budget 2026-27.

PMRC empowered committee

The Prime Minister Research Chair scheme will be “supervised and guided” by an “Empowered and a Steering Committee", chaired by PSA, says the concept note.

Other than the PSA, the “empowered committee” will include nominees from MoE, department of science and technology (DST), department of biotechnology (DBT), NITI Aayog, and other “distinguished” vice-chancellors, academics and industry experts, says the note.

The committee will also “identify priority countries for fellow outreach”, frame eligibility criteria and the selection process.

Its job will also be “monitoring implementation through a central repository of approved talent, track progress using defined KPIs, and evaluate research and mentorship outcomes with structured feedback”.

The 14 “priority areas” are the following:

• Advanced Materials, Rare-earth and Critical Minerals
• Energy, Sustainability and Climate Change
• Agriculture and Food Technologies
• Semiconductors
• Advanced Computing (Supercomputing, Al, Quantum Computing)
• Healthcare & MedTech
• Space and Defence
• Next-Gen Communications, including Quantum Communication
• Blue Economy
• Cybersecurity
• Manufacturing & Industry 4.0
• Biotechnology
• Atomic Energy
• Any other project aligned with the National Missions

The PMRC empowered committee will select the fellows and projects “mapping them to institutes based on availability and alignment with thematic areas”; identify “outcomes and outputs of projects”; facilitate collaborations across departments and institutions; and “resolving placement challenges to provide fellows with a conducive environment for their research, teaching, and mentorship activities”.

PMRC: Postdoctoral researchers, ‘global’ leaders

The scheme will support three categories of researchers and the concept note defines each category in terms of research and academic experience.

The Young Research Fellows will be “early-career academics, postdocs, edu-preneurs”; Senior Research Fellows, “mid-career with applied/industry focus”; and the PM Research Chairs, “global academic or scientific leaders”.

To put the postdoc fellowship amount into perspective, the 2026 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, offered by the European Union, has a grant value of around Rs 3 crore, at the Euro-to-INR conversion rates prevailing at the end of March.