Purpose

Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) will institute two Young Investigator Awards per year. This is an attractive, career oriented scheme to identify and nurture outstanding young scientists with innovative ideas and desirous of pursuing research in frontier areas of Biotechnology, especially on the biology of chronic and infectious Disease and Spice Genomics. Young scientists below the age of 35 years will be considered for this award. Scientists in regular employment at RGCB will not be eligible for the award. The award consists of financial support for a 3 year project (upto Rs.10 lakhs per year) besides a fellowship of Rs.40,000/- per month (consolidated) under the mentorship of Senior Faculty of RGCB.

Eligibility

The applicant should have an excellent academic career and should have publications in high impact journals. The proposed research project should clearly reflect the innovative thinking and execution capabilities of the applicant. The following minimum eligibility conditions also apply :

1.  Qualification: Ph.D. in any branch of Life Science including Medicine, Veterinary Sciences, Pharmacy, Agricultural Sciences, and Engineering Sciences related to biology. Candidates with a Master degree in Medicine, Engineering/Technology are also eligible to apply. Those likely to complete their Ph.D. programme in the next three months are also eligible to apply.

2.  The candidate should have secured First Class grades in examinations of all academic courses for award of a degree from the graduate level onwards.

3.  Cumulative publication impact factor of over 25 (with at least one paper in a journal with impact factor over 5)

4.  Age limit: 35 years or below at the time of submission of the application. Age relaxation of 5 years is made for candidates belonging to SC/ST/OBC, Women and Physically Handicapped Category.

5.  The applicant should be an Indian National.

Duration

The duration of the project will normally be for a period of three years subject to satisfactory progress. In case of research of outstanding merit, based on a review of the project by a committee of experts and their recommendations, the duration of the project may be extended by two more years up to a maximum period of five years.

Mode of Selection

Mere fufilling of minimum eligibility is not a criteria for applications being considered. The applications received from eligible candidates are reviewed by an expert committee for selection on the basis of their career profile, distinctions, quality of publications, patents, innovative thinking, scientific originality of the project and the detailed scientific comments. A maximum of two Awards may be given per year with a maximum of 5 Young Investigators at any point of time.

Review of the progress of the Awardees

The expert committee will also monitor the progress of the project, judge any additional requirement of the project and take midcourse correction wherever essential. The review will be done once every year. In case of unsatisfactory progress, the fellowship can be terminated. The selection committee will also decide about extension of the project beyond three years.