Long Term Fellowship under the Human Resource Development Programme for Health Research(LTFHRDPHR)

Overview

About LTFHRDPHR

A long term fellow can leave the home department for up to twelve months, and the foreign version of this award ties that absence to a Rs 5 lakh service bond and at least three years of service back at the parent institute, under the amended HRD guidelines. The Long Term Fellowship under the Human Resource Development Programme for Health Research pays regular faculty below 45 to learn a technique at another institution, in India or overseas, and very few people get through each year. The 2024-25 call for fellowships abroad advertised 15 long term places, a corrigendum raised that to 20, and the January 2025 result named 20 proposals; the next year's result named 13. The myScheme listing, meanwhile, still shows a foreign package that DHR revised in August 2024.

The fellowship is two components of the Department of Health Research's HRD scheme, not one: component VI covers long term training at a foreign institution and component VIII covers long term training at an Indian one. Both are implemented through the Indian Council of Medical Research, with DHR exercising overall managerial control, under the HRD guidelines amended on 20 December 2025. myScheme's description also lists a third long term strand, for medical college faculty working with three other approved DHR schemes, but the current guidelines set out fifteen components and carry no such variant, so the choice in practice is between the two routes.

The Indian route has run well below its own plan. Annexure-I of the same guidelines budgeted ten long term fellowships at Indian institutes in each of 2024-25 and 2025-26, at Rs 0.48 crore a year. The result notices for those two years, the main 2024-25 result, the North Eastern Region result for 2024-25, the main 2025-26 result and the North Eastern Region result for 2025-26, name one long term award at an Indian institute in each year.

The person it is written for is already on a payroll. A trainee, a Ph.D. scholar or a contract lecturer does not fit; a regular faculty member who wants to learn a specific method, say a genomics or clinical trial technique, and whose department can use it afterwards, does. The DHR form for long term scientists makes the return journey part of the application: it asks whether the facilities and equipment needed to carry out the research after the training already exist in the institute where you are employed.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

myScheme publishes no open or close date because DHR advertises each round separately, and in each of the last two years the long term fellowship has sat in three separate calls: the main HRD call for Indian institutes, a call for the North Eastern Region only, and the call for fellowships abroad.

The Indian route is the one to watch for 2026-27. The HRD call dated 21 April 2026 listed Short-Term Studentship, thesis support, the women scientist fellowship, the NRI/PIO/OCI programme, institutional support, the start-up grant, travel grants and workshop grants, and no long term fellowship at Indian institutes, as the 2026-27 extension notice, which reproduces that call, shows. In both earlier years a North Eastern Region call followed in the second half of the year, so a faculty member in one of the eight north-eastern states has had a second window that others have not.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The two routes share an age ceiling and a citizenship rule but read differently on qualifications. Under the December 2025 guidelines, an applicant must be below 45 on the last date of receipt of applications for either route. The foreign route spells out two alternative qualifications: an M.D., M.S., M.D.S. or DNB degree, or an MBBS, BDS, MVSc, M.Sc., M.Pharm or M.Tech (or equivalent) with a Ph.D. in health or biomedical research, followed by at least three years of teaching or research in a recognised institute. The Indian route keeps the wording myScheme reproduces, with no mention of DNB, and counts the three years as regular employment in the institute itself.

Paperwork conditions sit inside the eligibility clauses for the foreign route. The employer or head of institution must forward the application with a statement that you remain a full-time employee during the fellowship, you must hold a letter of acceptance from the foreign host, and a candidate from a private college or university must attach an AICTE recognition letter. On age, the general terms let the Secretary, DHR, grant up to two further years of relaxation in exceptional proposals when the Technical Appraisal Committee recommends it.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The two routes bar earlier fellows in different ways, which matters to anyone who has trained before. For component VI the test is time: three years must have passed since any similar fellowship from a central or state government agency. Component VIII sets no time window, but it refuses anyone who has already held a fellowship of one month or more for the same subject of training or research project, per the amended HRD guidelines. Both components are written for regular faculty, so an ad hoc or contract appointment does not qualify on either.

The employing institution can also be the obstacle. myScheme's document list asks for a DSIR recognition certificate, and the guidelines count a private institution as a beneficiary only when it is registered with DSIR as a research institution, per the DHR HRD guidelines. A faculty member at a private college should confirm that registration before the head of institution signs the forwarding letter.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Twelve months is the ceiling on both routes, and neither component VI nor component VIII provides for a further term. A foreign placement also has to begin within the financial year of the award and be completed before 31 March of the next year, and its dates are treated as final once decided, per the amended HRD guidelines. The earlier-fellowship rules then work as a cooling-off period: a fellow back from abroad cannot apply to the foreign route again for three years, and a fellow trained at an Indian host cannot return to this component for the same subject.

What you get

Award & benefits

The money is set out differently for each route in the December 2025 guidelines, and a placement in your own institute earns nothing.

The myScheme listing for this fellowship still describes the foreign package that applied before 23 August 2024: a one-time contingency of up to Rs 50,000 covering visa, insurance and local expenses, and a conference grant of US$600 for a stay of up to six months or US$1,200 for six to twelve months. DHR's amendment of that date replaced the contingency with the Rs 75,000 and Rs 20,000 heads shown above, and the component VI text in the current guidelines lists no conference grant, so a long term fellow abroad should not budget for one.

• Long-Term Fellowship (6-12 months) in Indian institutes: Monthly Stipend: ₹40,000/- per month (different station); ₹20,000/- per month (same station). - Travel Allowance: As per the parent organization's T.A. rules. - Contingency Grant: ₹30,000/- (maximum) for local expenses; ₹20,000/- for attending progress review meetings.
• Long-Term Fellowship (6-12 months) in Foreign institutes: Monthly Stipend: US $3000/- per month (or equivalent currency). - Air Travel: Economy class airfare by Air India via the shortest route. - Contingency Grant: ₹50,000/- (maximum) for visa, insurance, local expenses; ₹20,000/- for review meetings. - Conference Grant: US $600 (up to 6 months) or US $1200 (6–12 months).

What to prepare

Documents required

myScheme's list mixes three kinds of paper: proof of identity, age and qualifications; the proposal itself, meaning the technical details form, the applicant's undertaking, the head of institute's certificate and the mentor's consent letter; and the financial instruments, led by the mandate form that tells DHR which institute account to pay. The application formats are on the DHR HRD forms page, while the claim sheet, utilisation certificate and completion report formats for after the award sit on the DHR HRD scheme page.

The technical details form for long term scientists is where the committee reads the case. Its third section covers the proposed training and the research proposal to be submitted after it: the justification against your ongoing research, a plan for using what you learn, the techniques to be learnt and their relevance to public health. Earlier sections ask for any fellowship or training of one month or more taken in the last three years, what it was in and how it was used, and for two referees, per the long term scientist form.

A foreign fellow faces a second round of documents after selection, before any money moves. The amended guidelines list political clearance for the visit, a copy of the visa and passport, a service bond of Rs 5 lakh to the parent institute, and an undertaking by two guarantors on Rs 50 non-judicial stamp paper. The institute separately sends its mandate form and a cancelled cheque before ICMR releases the grant.

Step by step

How to apply

The two routes use different portals. A proposal for an Indian host goes through DHR's e-PMS at schemes.dhr.gov.in, and the dhrschemes.icmr.org.in address printed on the myScheme listing now redirects there; the e-PMS registration note has you register, verify your email and complete the profile before the HRD sub-scheme can be chosen.

The DHR e-PMS manual walks through the form itself: mentor details at the host, a budget page, document uploads in PDF under 10 MB each, the institute's mandate form, a preview with a declaration, and Submit Proposal. It warns against posting hard copies to DHR or ICMR, and tells applicants to check the call to see which fellowships are open before applying.

A foreign placement is applied for on ICMR's international fellowship portal, intfel.icmr.org.in, which both the 2025-26 call for fellowships abroad and the 2026-27 call named. The mentor comes first: the 2025-26 call told applicants to contact a suitable foreign mentor and obtain consent, and listed twelve example hosts in the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK while leaving other universities open.

Tracking a Proposal and the Payment

e-PMS shows a confirmation once a proposal is submitted, and questions about it go through the portal's Query/Feedback option, filed as general, financial or technical, per the e-PMS manual. Results come out as declaration notices on the schemes portal, and on the foreign route they can be keyed to the proposal ID alone: the 2024-25 result for fellowships abroad printed numbers such as 2024-00018 and no names, while the 2025-26 notices added names. Keep the ID the portal gives you.

Payment runs through your institute rather than straight to your account. For a foreign placement the parent institute advances the US$3,000 monthly stipend and holds back 10% until you return and settle the utilisation certificate and original receipts, per the amended HRD guidelines. Every result notice adds that release depends on completing the codal formalities, so on the foreign route the money waits on the bond, political clearance and guarantors' undertaking that the institute must collect first.

How winners are picked

Selection process

For the foreign route, ICMR screens the applications and a selection committee of eminent scientists considers the shortlist, judging the candidate's merit against the training needs in medical research, as the amended guidelines state. For the Indian route the calls say every fellowship needs the approval of DHR's Technical Evaluation Committee and Project Approval Committee and depends on funds, per the 2025-26 call for the North Eastern Region.

The committees leave the Indian route empty when nothing meets the bar, and have done so twice in two years: both the main 2024-25 result and the North Eastern Region result for 2025-26 record that no long term proposal at an Indian institute was found suitable for funding.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The foreign route carries the heavier strings, and on a year-long placement the sums behind them are large. The Rs 5 lakh bond does not cap the exposure: an International Fellow who does not come back, or who leaves the parent institute before the three years of return service are up, owes the whole expenditure, which on a twelve-month stay means a year of the US$3,000 stipend plus airfare and contingency, in one lump sum within a month, recovered through the guarantors. Withdrawing at the last minute bars a fellow from the international fellowship for the next two years, and ticket cancellation charges fall on the fellow, under the amended HRD guidelines.

An Indian-institute fellow signs no bond, since the 23 August 2024 amendment struck out a Rs 3 lakh surety bond for three years of service. The obligations are about output instead: a final work report within four weeks of finishing, a confidential report from the mentor sent to DHR, and within six months a detailed proposal for an ad hoc research grant, failing which the training counts as incomplete. That proposal grows out of the one the long term form already asked you to outline, and the parent institute then reports what came of it, in publications, grants and capacity, for five years, per the December 2025 guidelines.

On both routes the mentor and host cannot be changed once approved, except in special circumstances with the approval of the Joint Secretary, DHR, and the fellow stays under the administrative control of the employing institution rather than becoming a DHR employee. A foreign fellow's final report goes to the parent institute with a copy to ICMR within two weeks of return, and the institute sends ICMR the utilisation certificate, receipts and mentor's report within 30 days, as the HRD guidelines require.

Get help

Contact

Who you deal with depends on the stage and the route. Before applying, questions about the abroad call go to dhr-hrdschemes@gov.in, the address on the 2026-27 call for fellowships abroad, while questions on an Indian-route proposal are raised inside e-PMS, as the 2025-26 HRD call directs, with portal faults sent to epms.dhr@icmr.gov.in under the e-PMS instructions. After selection the parent institute becomes the working contact, because it disburses the money and forwards the reports to ICMR.

DHR's HRD Division sits on the 2nd Floor, IRCS Building, 1, Red Cross Road, New Delhi 110001, the address on its result notices. Its administrative and technical officers are listed with their landlines on the DHR HRD scheme page.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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