Government announces 4 new schemes to promote young scientists

The Ministry of Science & Technology has announced four new schemes to promote young scientists and researchers in the country. They are Teacher Associateship for Research Excellence (TARE) Scheme, Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship, Distinguished Investigator Award (DIA) and AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research).
The schemes primarily aim at early recognition and reward to young talent in the field of science.  They focus on youth to empower, recognize and motivate them.

TARE Scheme

It aims to tap latent potential of faculty working in state universities, colleges and private academic institutions who are well trained but having difficulty in pursuing their research due to varied reasons including lack of facilities, funding and guidance. Up to 500 TAs (Teacher Associateships) will be supported under this scheme.
This scheme facilitates mobility of such faculty members to carryout research in well-established public funded institution such as IITs, IISc, IISERS and other National Institutions (NITs, CSIR, ICAR, ICMR labs, etc) and Central Universities located preferably nearer to institution where faculty member is working.

Overseas Visiting Doctoral Fellowship

The scheme was instituted to enhance international mobility of Indian research students having potential to create talented pool of globally trained manpower. It will provide opportunity for research students to gain exposure and access to top class research facilities in academia and labs across the world.
It will offer opportunities for up to 100 PhD students admitted in Indian institutions for gaining exposure and training in overseas universities /institutions of repute and areas of importance to country for 1 year period during their doctoral research. The selected fellows will be paid a monthly fellowship amount, one-time contingency/preparatory allowances to cover visa fee, airport transfer charges, medical insurance etc.

Distinguished Investigator Award (DIA)

The scheme was initiated to recognize and reward Principal Investigators (PIs) of Department of Science and Technology (DST) projects that have performed remarkably well. It aims to reward best PIs of completed projects and also motivate ongoing PIs to perform exceedingly well.
It seeks to effectively improve productivity of research undertaken and overall efficiency of research ecosystem. It will be one-time career award devised to specifically cater to younger scientists who have not received any other prestigious awards or fellowships. The award carries a fellowship and optional research grant for 3 years, based on peer review of project proposal submitted. 

AWSAR (Augmenting Writing Skills for Articulating Research) Scheme

The scheme aims to encourage, empower and endow popular science writing through newspapers, magazines, blogs, social media, etc. by young PhD Scholars and Post-Doctoral Fellows during course of their studies and research pursuits. It also seeks to tap tremendous potential of young scientists to popularize & communicate science and also to inculcate scientific temperament in the masses.
The scheme also carries monetary incentive to each of 100 best entries from PhD scholars in year along with Certificate of Appreciation besides getting the story published/projected in mass media. In addition, three leading stories from selected hundred will be also awarded cash prize. Further, twenty entries will be selected from articles submitted exclusively by Post-Doctoral Fellows relating to their line of Research for monetary incentive and most outstanding story to be given a cash prize of Rs.1,00,000/-.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2018