Research Funding Rules

Fellowships

1. The following categories of Fellowships may be awarded for undertaking research in History within India:
             (a)  Junior Research Fellowship
             (b)  General Fellowship (post-doctoral)
             (c)  Pay Protection Fellowship
             (d)  Senior Fellowship
             (e)  National Fellowship
             (f)  Fellowship for Foreign Nationals
   
2. All Fellowships specified in Clause 1 shall be awarded by the Research Projects Committee for research work to be specified in the award.
   
3. The total number of Fellowships in any of the categories specified in clause 1 that are available for award at any time may be varied by the Research Projects Committee, except in the case of National Fellowships, whose number shall not exceed six at any time.
   
4. A Fellowship shall be a whole-time engagement for research work and cannot be combined with any other whole-time or part-time work.
   Provided that—
   (a)   a Fellow can continue with his previous employment, if he takes leave during the period of Fellowship; he may also take leave with pay for the period of the Fellowship, but, in that case, the Fellowship and leave salary drawn by him cannot exceed the salary he would have drawn if he was not on leave; and
   (b)   A part-time honorary or nominally paid teaching or research assignment may be accepted by a Fellow with the permission of the Research Projects Committee.
   (c)   In case of these Fellowships being awarded to serving scholars/teachers, their pay shall not be protected unless a request to that effect is made in the application and the committee decides to do so as a special case. However, in case of retired scholars the basic pension and total emoluments before retirement will be taken into account while deciding the fellowship amount. That means the total emoluments including basic pension and fellowship amount should not exceed the last pay drawn. No HRA will be admissible.
   
5. Junior Research Fellowship:
   (a)   The Fellowship shall carry an amount or Rupees five thousand (Rs. 5000) per month with a contingency grant of Rupees twelve thousand (Rs. 12,000) per annum for a period of two years for non-NET students, extendable by one year in exceptional case; for students who have qualified the NET, the fellowship amount shall be Rupees six thousand (Rs. 6,000) per month with the contingency grant of Rupees twelve thousand (Rs. 12,000) per annum for two years, extendable by one year in exceptional case.
   (b)   Only a scholar registered for the degree of Ph.D. or equivalent thereof at an Indian university shall be eligible for a Junior Research Fellowship. No Junior Research Fellowship will be awarded to students studying for M.Phil degree.
   (c)   In case of scholars registered simultaneously for M.Phil., and Ph.D. or (at a university where M.Phil. is not offered or is not a requirement for registration for the degree of Ph.D) for Ph.D. only, the duration of the Fellowship shall be two years, which may be extended by one year after assessment of the Fellow’s work by the Research Projects Committee.
   (d)   Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-clauses (b) and (c) the Fellowship shall automatically terminate two months after the Fellow submits his Ph.D. thesis (for which the Fellowship had been awarded), or on the date of his viva voce examination on the said thesis, whichever is earlier; it shall also automatically terminate upon the Fellow ceasing to be eligible to submit the said dissertation or thesis at the university where he is registered.
   Housewives who are exceptionally bright scholar and are not able to take up a regular career shall be eligible for fellowship carrying the same grant as that of Junior Fellowship (for non-NET and NET) for a period of two years only. In exceptional cases and on the quality or achievement, it may be extended for a further period of six months only.
   
6. General Fellowship (Post-doctoral):
   (a)   The Fellowship shall carry an amount or Rupees six thousand (Rs. 6,000) per month with a contingency grant of Rupees twelve thousand (Rs. 12,000) per annum.
   (b)   Only a scholar who has obtained the degree of Ph.D. or equivalent from an Indian or foreign university or has published work of equivalent merit to his credit shall be eligible for the Fellowship.
   (c)The duration of the Fellowship shall be two years, which may be extended by one year after assessment of the Fellow’s work by the Research Projects Committee.
   
7. Pay Protection Fellowship: Not applicable. To be read with other categories of Fellowships.
   
8. Senior Fellowship:
   (a)   The Fellowship may be awarded to a senior scholar who has established his reputation by his published research work.
   (b)  The amount of Fellowship shall be Rupees eight
   thousand (Rs. 8000) per month with a contingency grant or Rupees thirty six thousand (Rs. 36,000) per annum.
   (c)   The duration of the Fellowship shall be two years, which may be extended by one year in exceptional cases in the manner as laid down in Clause 6 (c).
   
9. National Fellowship:
   (a)   The Fellowship shall be awarded to an Indian scholar of distinction, who has established his reputation for the researches he has already published, and who wishes to undertake research of a fundamental or innovative character under the Fellowship.
   (b)   The Fellowship shall be awarded by the Council upon the recommendation of the Research Projects Committee for a period of two years extendable by one year. Extension for the third year may be given in exceptional cases after evaluating the research work done during the first two years. Direct applications from scholars shall not be entertained.
   (c)   It shall carry a sum of Rupees twenty five thousand (Rs. 25,000) per month with a contingency grant of Rupees fifty thousand (Rs. 50,000) per annum. Provided that where a National Fellowship is offered to a scholar in service, the fellowship will protect his salary and allowances. Council will also pay his leave salary and pension contribution.
   (d)   The National Fellow may not be required to associate himself with an institution of affiliation, and, at his volition, the Fellowship grants may be released to him directly.
10.  Fellowship for Foreign Nationals:
    In case the applicant is a foreign national, the terms of the Fellowship shall be laid down for each case by the Research Projects Committee, but the duration of the Fellowship shall not ordinarily exceed one year, and the work specified in the award shall be undertaken in India.
    
    Provided that foreign nationals may not be barred form being awarded Fellowship of categories (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) in Clause 1 on the ground only that they are eligible for the award of a Fellowship under this clause.
    
11. (a)   Applications or proposals for fellowships other than National Fellowships shall be framed as far as possible according to the proforma given in Annexures II & III. Proposals for the National Fellowships shall be framed by the Member Secretary and submitted to the Chairman, providing the bio-data of the Fellow proposed, and specifications of the work for which the fellowship may be offered to him. It shall however, be open for the Research Projects Committee to recommend award of a National Fellowship to a scholar, from whom or on whose behalf no proposal has been received.
    (b)   Applications or proposals, submitted under sub-clause (a), shall be entertained at all times without restriction of date.
    Provided that applications for Junior Research Fellowships should normally be routed through the institutions where the applicant is registered for Ph.D.; applications for General (Post-doctoral) and Senior Fellowships should normally be routed through institutions willing to act as institution of affiliation; and applications for Pay-protection Fellowships should normally be routed through the employers.
    
12. (a)   An application or proposal received under Clause 11, except for a proposal for National Fellowship, shall be sent to at least two consultant, who may be requested to furnish an assessment and recommendations within a month. However, a proposal for Junior Research Fellowship shall be sent to only one consultant with the request to furnish assessment and recommendation within a month.
    (b)   On receipt of the assessment and recommendations from the consultants, these along with the application or proposal shall be placed before the Research Projects Committee, for its decision for the award of Fellowship.
    
    Provided that
    (i)   An application or proposal for Senior Fellowship may not be sent to consultants and may be placed directly before the Research Projects Committee, should the Chairman certify in writing that, in his opinion, the scholar who has applied for a Senior Fellowship, or for whom a National Fellowship is proposed, is of an eminent status; and
    (ii)   If assessment and recommendations from at least two consultants are not received within a month of the request for such assessment and recommendations having been made on behalf of the ICHR, the application or proposal may be sent to another consultant or other consultants; but even if after two months, only one consultant’s assessment and recommendations have been received, these together with the application or proposal may be placed before the Research Projects Committee.
    (iii)   If assessment and recommendations from consultants are not received even after the expiry of two months, Chairman/Member Secretary may constitute a committee of experts and obtain the assessment and recommendations which shall be placed before the Research Projects Committee.
    
13. Proposal for a National Fellowship shall not be sent to a consultant, but shall be directly placed before the Research Projects Committee, to enable it to make its recommendation for the award of the Fellowship to the Council.
    
14. Upon award of a Fellowship under Clause 2, the award shall remain valid for a period of one year from the date on which the minutes of the meeting of the Research Projects Committee or of the Council, in which the award was made, are signed by the Chairman, and shall lapse if the awardee fails to join within that period.
    The Chairman is authorised to revalidate the fellowships, research projects, etc. even after a period of one year, but if there is no response from the scholar, the grant shall be considered to have lapsed; but a National Fellowship can only be renewed by the Council upon the recommendation of the Research Projects Committee.
    
15. (a)   Every fellow, other than National Fellow, shall have his amount of Fellowship grant disbursed to him through his institution of affiliation. He shall be treated at par with the other employees of the institution of affiliation for all administrative purposes and for leave (other than leave without Fellowship), holidays, drawal of TA/DA and rules and rates governing expenditure, subject to any specific provisions to the contrary in these Rules.
    Provided that
    (i)  The Fellowship shall not be treated in the nature of deputation from the ICHR, and no liability shall be borne by the ICHR or by the institution of affiliation towards leave salary, pension, medical attendance, etc., except that, in case of Pay-protection Fellowship, the ICHR shall be liable to pay the employer’s share of contribution in accordance with the rules of the Contributory Provident Fund to which the Fellow may have been subscribing as an employee; and
    (ii)  A National Fellow may elect to have his Fellowship disbursed through an institution of affiliation.
    (b)   Subject to Clause 16, the amount of Fellowship grant shall be paid to the institution of affiliation ordinarily in advance in one or two six-monthly instalments.
    (c)   The institution of affiliation shall be expected to provide the Fellow with facilities such as accommodation for work, including furniture, library and research facilities and messenger services, and to keep accounts of the Fellowship grant disbursed through the said institution, in return whereof the ICHR shall pay overhead charges to the said institution.
    
16.  (a)   Every Fellow, other than National Fellow, shall submit a six-monthly progress report in triplicate to the institution of affiliation for being forwarded to the ICHR.
    In the case of Junior Research Fellows, the report shall be certified by the Supervisor, and, in case he is unavailable, by the Head of the Department in which the Fellow is working.
    Instalments of Fellowship grant shall not be released if the progress report for periods for which payment had been made are not furnished, or, if furnished, are not found satisfactory.
    
    Provided that, in the case of a Fellowship other than the National Fellowship and the Special Fellowship for Foreign National, where the Fellowship is not a Junior Research Fellowship.
    
    (i)  The Fellow shall submit a report at the end of every six months, which, unless the Chairman otherwise directs, may be sent to a consultant for his assessment and recommendations, and, should these be positive, the subsequent instalment of the Fellowship grant, as due, shall be released; and at the end of the year would submit an annual comprehensive report, which would be evaluated for continuation of the grant further to the second year. In case of fellowship the amount for the last three months and the last instalment of contingency grant shall be withheld, in all cases (PDF, Senior, Pay-protection and National Fellowship). It shall be released on satisfactory completion of work and submission of statement for the grant withheld.
    (ii)  In the case of Junior Research Fellowship also the above rule would apply.
    (iii)  An extension of a Fellowship under any of the foregoing clauses of this chapter shall not be awarded by the Research Projects Committee unless the report of work for the entire previous period and the statement of expenditure for that period have been received, and the said report having been sent to a consultant (who, as far as possible, shall be a person other than the consultant or consultants who had previously furnished assessment and recommendations in the case), his assessment and recommendations have been obtained, to be placed before the Research Projects Committee to assist it in making its decision; but in the case of a Senior Fellow of eminence, the Chairman may decide that reference to a consultant is not necessary, whereupon the Fellow’s report shall be directly placed before the Research Projects Committee.
    
17. Within one year after the date of release of last instalment of Fellowship a Fellow other than a Junior Research Fellow, shall submit to the ICHR either a complete typescript of the monograph, edited text or translation prepared under the Fellowship, or a detailed report of the work done and the conclusions reached by him, together with published papers, sindicating the due acknowledgement to ICHR’s grant and other material.
    A Junior Research Fellow shall submit an abstract of thesis along with a certificate from Registrar regarding submission of thesis to the University with date of submission, within one month of his submission of thesis for adjudications.
    
18. (a)   Should a Fellow (including a National Fellow), after joining his Fellowship, cease to work on the Fellowship for a time either because of ill-health or his obtaining other gainful employment, or for some other reason, he shall apply for leave to the ICHR, and, should such leave be granted by the Chairman, he shall not draw the Fellowship for the period of such leave.
    Provided that the period of the said leave, which shall not exceed six months, shall be counted towards determining the duration of the Fellowship; and
    (b)   the contingency grant shall be deemed to lapse if the said leave covers a whole period of a six-monthly instalment of the Fellowship and contingency grant, but not if it covers only a part thereof.
    
19. Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing clauses of this chapter or in Clause 4 of Chapter I, should a Fellow die during the period of the Fellowship or within six months after the end of the said period without submitting the last periodic or the final report, the balance of the fellowship due for the period till the date of his death or the end of the period of the Fellowship, whichever shall be earlier, shall be paid to the legal heirs of the Fellow, unless the Research Projects Committee shall have reason to believe that the Fellow had ceased working on the Fellowship for a significantly long period before his death, in which case it may decide to withhold the corresponding portion of the Fellowship.
    
20. Notwithstanding anything contained above, a person shall not be eligible for the award of
    (a)  A Senior Fellowship, if he has previously held a Senior Fellowship twice, or has previously held a Post-doctoral Fellowship (including a Pay-Protection Fellowship on a project not leading to the M.Phil/Ph.D. degree) and a Senior Fellowship; or
    (b)  A General (Post-doctoral) Fellowship, if he has previously twice held a Post-doctoral Fellowship (including a Pay-protection Fellowship on a project not leading to the M.Phil./Ph.D. degree).
    
21. The Research Projects Committee may, at its discretion, award or extend a Fellowship other than National Fellowship for a shorter duration than is prescribed in these Rules.
    
22. The continuance of a Junior Research Fellowship and other Fellowships is contingent upon good conduct and may stand terminated if adverse report about the conduct of a Fellow is received from the University or institution where he is enrolled or from the affiliating institution, or from any other responsible source.