Newton-Bhabha PhD Short Term Placements Program in UK

Newton-Bhabha PhD Placements Programme

Call for Applications

1. On behalf of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills of the British Government (BIS) and the Ministry of Science and Technology, India (MoST), British Council India and the Department of Science and Technology (DST)  are pleased to invite applications for funding to support short-term PhD placements between UK and Indian institutions.
2. The Programme will sponsor UK and Indian PhD students to spend a period of their study (3 to 6 months) in Indian and UK higher education institutions taking place between March 2015 and March 2016.
3. Indian PhD students, applicable only to students who have been awarded INSPIRE Fellowship in the financial year 2011-12 to pursue PhD program and also completed their assessment process from JRF to SRF, wishing to travel to the UK may apply to the fund by completing the form accessible on website’s http://www.inspire-dst.gov.in/ & www.dst.gov.in and UK PhD students wishing to travel to India may apply for the fund by completing the on-line application form accessible at https://www.formstack.com/forms/?1867735-9vddXDA5Ge. The deadline for receipt of applications is 15 January 2015. The announcement of the selection results will be made by mid-February 2015.

Background

4. The Newton Fund is a £375 million fund (£75 million a year for 5 years starting 2014/15) launched to promote science and innovation partnership with key international partners, including India. Programmes under the Newton Fund will augment the existing research collaboration with India to jointly deliver innovative solutions to global development challenges.
5. By working together on bi-lateral and multi-lateral programmes with a research and innovation focus, the UK will build strong, sustainable, systemic relationships with partner countries. This will support the continued excellence of the UK research base and innovation ecosystem and act as a golden key to unlock opportunities for wider collaboration and trade.
6. Building up a talented pool of well trained, internationally active doctoral students is an essential step towards establishing world-class research  systems. Improving mobility at the doctoral level is also an important factor in facilitating cross border research collaboration, as connections made at this level can be sustained over longer periods and can percolate through to other members of research teams. It also offers benefits to doctoral researchers in terms of intellectual development, career progression, access to existing and emerging world class facilities and access to comparative research, environments and populations.
7. Therefore, the BIS and the MoST have decided to jointly establish a threeyear (2014-2016) PhD Placement Programme (hereafter referred to as “the Programme”) under the Newton-Bhabha Fund.

8. The British Council, entrusted by the BIS, will be responsible for the design and daily operation of the Programme on the UK side, and on the Indian side in consultation with DST.

Aims

9. The aim of the Programme is to facilitate the capacity building of individuals through PhD placements. These will be focussed on research areas which have been identified at the country level as important for fulfilling the Fund goals. Please refer to the section on priority sectors.

10. The approach will be student centred to ensure that the best possible development experience is provided for each student. International exchanges should add value through enabling students to:

 Learn valuable new skills or techniques
 Access facilities or resources not readily available in their home country
 Build relationships with potential new collaborators, including industry partners where relevant
 Advance complementary collaborative research.

11. Supervisors are encouraged to engage and participate in the programme to ensure that an appropriate research environment for the student is accessible at host institutions, and to encourage the development of sustainable relationships between institutions. Outcomes

12. The primary outcomes will be the following:
 Development of individual capacity through international training and development opportunities;
 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;
 Participation of UK domiciled and Indian PhD students in international intellectual networks, building cultural understanding, and fostering long-term sustainable research collaborations;
 Development of international joint training pathways;
 Awareness of the research strength of the UK and India.

Priority sectors

13. Applications are welcome in any Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. This also includes the Grand Challenges areas and underpinning capabilities identified by the UK-India Task Force on Science and Innovation, which are -

 Sustainable Cities and Rapid Urbanisation
 Public Health and Well being
 Energy Water Food Nexus

Eligibility

14. On the UK side applications will be considered from PhD students from all institutions which are strong in research in the above priority sectors (refer to point 13). On the Indian side applications will be open to existing INSPIRE PhD fellows at an appropriate level who have completed at least two years of research as an INSPIRE Fellow.

Application

15. Each application should include a PhD student and should come with endorsement from both the sending and receiving supervisors, including with the latter’s confirmation that they will host the PhD students; duration of the stay; and level of fees they will charge.
16. Indian applicants should use the application format provided at Annexure A.
17. UK applications should be submitted to the British Council India, and Indian  applications should be submitted to DST India.

Activities supported

18. The Programme will fund individual Indian PhD students to spend a period between 3 and 6 months in the UK, or vice versa.

Funding arrangements

19. British Council will invest up to a total of £1.2 million and hold up to 4 calls. In this first call it will invest up to £300,000. British Council anticipates funding up to 30 PhD placements in the first call. DST will fund similar number from UK to India in the first call.

20. Costs covered
 Each student can visit the partner institution once for a period of 3 to 6 months.
 Visa fee, international airfares (economy class) and overseas travel insurance costs incurred by PhD students will be met by their sending government.
 Where the UK host university cannot waive the fees, the host supervisor can apply to the British Council for up to £5,000, which must be indicated on the Indian applicant’s application. UK government will pay Indian students a monthly stipend of £1,300 to cover meals, accommodation and domestic travel, etc.

 The Indian Government will pay UK students a monthly stipend of 25000 INR, basic medical care insurance and a one-off arrival allowance of 10000 INR.

Accommodation for the UK PhD students will be provided by the Indian host university. UK PhD students will be exempt from accommodation fees, tuition fees, experiment fees and basic teaching material costs. Costs beyond the above arrangements will be borne by the students themselves.

 Any existing support to both UK and Indian students from their respective governments must continue during the tenure of the fellowship.

21. To summarise, funding from the British Government will cover the following

items:

 PhD students:
- UK students’ visa fees to India
- UK students’ returning airfares (economy class)
- UK students’ Overseas travel insurance
- Indian students’ bench fees in the UK
- Indian students’ stipend in the UK.

22. Funding from the Indian Government will cover the following items:

 PhD students:
- Indian students’ visa fees to the UK
- Indian students’ returning airfares (economy class)
- Indian students’ travel insurance
- UK students’ arrival allowance in India
- UK students’ stipend in India
- UK students’ fees, accommodation, insurance, experiment fees and basic
teaching material costs in India

Evaluation criteria

23. The applicants should ensure their applications meet the criteria set out below.

The principles underlying the assessment of applications will be:

 All questions on the Application Form are answered;
 The activities are planned to deliver the outcomes in the most effective way;
 The placement will added value to the PhD research and to the activities of
the two research groups;
 The support offered to the researcher will ensure that the placement is as
productive as possible
 The mobility programme will contribute towards developing a long term
sustainable partnership between UK and Indian universities.

Evaluation process

24. Department of Science and Technology, India and British Council India will conduct independent evaluation processes and based on that will select the required number of students for this purpose. After the evaluation the lists of selected students shall be shared with each agency for taking a final decision.
25. Applications will be screened for their relevance as per priority sectors (refer to point 13) of Newton Fund.

Contracting and Financial Arrangements

26. The grant agreement for placements in the UK will be signed between the British Council India and the UK host institution. The host institution will be responsible for:
 Managing the grant, including paying the stipend to students
 Provision of financial accounts to detail how the UK Government funds have been spent on each PhD student over the reporting periods by the end of March 2015, end of March 2016 and end of March 2017.
 Alerting the British Council India to any substantive changes that will impact on project outcomes.

27. The grant agreement for placements in India will be signed between DST and the Indian host institution.

28. The host institution will be responsible for:
 Provision of financial accounts to detail how the Indian Government funds have been spent on each PhD student over the reporting periods by the end of March 2015, end of March 2016 and end of March 2017.
 Alerting the DST India to any substantive changes that will impact on project outcomes.

Support to students

29. The Newton PhD Placements programme expects that the host institution offers high standards of supervision, management and mentoring to placement students. In your proposal, you might want to consider the following:

• The host institution’s standards of supervision, management and mentoring.
• Support and training supervisors receive so that they provide the highestquality supervisory support for their doctoral students
• Mechanisms that are in place to assess, provide for and monitor individual doctoral student needs and offer the student appropriate development opportunities
• Professional and transferable skills training offered to doctoral students, including training in the principles of good research conduct in their discipline and in the relevant ethical, legal and professional frameworks
• Learning and training opportunities available to doctoral students to raise awareness of the broader context of their research area, particularly in  reference to societal and ethical issues, and the importance of engaging the public with research

For further information on UK standards for doctoral training, please refer to the  ‘Statement of Expectations for Doctoral Training’ http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUKprod/assets/documents/skills/statementofexpectation.pdf

Reporting and Monitoring

30. Each PhD student will submit a report, detailing training progress and financial accounts, to the British Council India and DST respectively by 30thApril 2015, 30th April 2016 and 30th April 2017.

31. The host institution which manages the grant will submit financial reports to the British Council and DST respectively see above.

Contact points

For British Council – India
Leena Arora Leena.Arora@in.britishcouncil.org
For DST – India
Dr Chhama Awasthi,
INSPIRE Program (Fellowship) chhama.awasthi@nic.in

All interested and eligible candidates must apply in the prescribed A4 size format along with documents as listed in Annexure A.

Applications should be sent by Post only and shall be addressed to

Dr Chhama Awasthi
INSPIRE Program
Department of Science & Technology
Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi – 110 016.

The envelope should mention on top “Application for Newton-Bhabha PhD Placements
Programme (Priority Area)”.

More Info:

www.inspire-dst.gov.in/Newton-Bhabha%20PhD%20Placements%20Call%20Guidelines.pdf