Scheme for Setting Up of Centre of Excellence(SSUCE)

Overview

About SSUCE

The Scheme for Setting Up of Centre of Excellence is filed under scholarships on the government's scheme directory, and that is the first thing to unlearn. No student applies to it and no student is paid by it. The applicant is a government university or a government research organisation, the award is a capital grant of up to Rs 5 crore, and only 18 centres have cleared it since the first sanctions in 2011. If you teach or run research at a government institute working on chemicals or petrochemicals, the eligibility bar is less about excellence in the abstract and more about land, permanent staff and the ability to pay for the other half.

The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, runs this as a sub-scheme of the New Scheme of Petrochemicals, next to the Plastic Parks sub-scheme that puts up to Rs 40 crore a project into shared industrial infrastructure instead of research (Plastic Parks). Its purpose is to put a working research centre inside an institute that already does this work, so that new products, recycling technology, biopolymers, membranes, coatings and process improvements move from a laboratory bench towards industry (Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, scheme guidelines).

The money is capital, not stipend. The department meets a maximum of 50% of the total investment or cost of the project, subject to an upper limit of Rs 5 crore, and the balance has to come from the applicant institute and its partners. Support runs for a period of 5 years from the date the institute signs the agreement with the department (scheme guidelines, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals).

Who has actually received the grant says more than the eligibility text does. 18 centres have been approved since 2011, and the list runs through IIT campuses, CSIR laboratories, CIPET and the rubber research institute at Thane (approved Centres of Excellence). None of them is a private institution, and that is not an accident of selection.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The scheme has no annual calendar. The department opens a call, names a closing date, and closes it. The 2020 invitation asked for proposals by 6th July, 2020 (2020 invitation for applications). The 2024 invitation set 15th July, 2024, then extended the timeline to 31st July, 2024 after several institutions asked for more time (extension of timelines). No newer call for Centre of Excellence proposals appears on the department's notifications list (notifications, Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals), so an institute preparing a proposal is preparing it ahead of a window rather than inside one.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

The guidelines split the test into Essential and Desirable, and a flat bulleted list hides that split. Essential: an existing Central or State Government University or a Government organisation with a proven track record; current research and development work in the chemical or petrochemical sector, evidenced by publications, research projects, consultancy assignments and registered PhD candidates; land and building already in hand to house the centre, its scholars and the equipment the grant will buy; and sufficient competent manpower in the proposed field. Desirable: an industrial partner from the beginning, which the guidelines say "would be preferred" rather than require (scheme guidelines).

The people conditions are stricter than they look. The Team Leader has to be an established research scientist with the administrative experience to direct the programme, and has to show continuity of research through publications in the last five years in peer-reviewed international journals. Co-investigators and other team members must be on the permanent payroll of the proposing institute, which quietly rules out visiting faculty, adjuncts and consultants however strong their record (scheme guidelines).

The subject scope has widened once already. The 2020 round asked for institutes engaged in research in the petrochemical sector (2020 guidelines), while the 2024 round opened it to the chemical or petrochemical sector and added areas the earlier list did not name at all: reference materials to support testing, novel nanomaterials, renewable-feedstock processes, and the optimisation of chemical processes through advanced reactors and separation techniques (2024 guidelines).

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

There is no exclusions heading anywhere in the Centre of Excellence paperwork, so the three conditions that actually knock proposals out have to be read off other pages of the guidelines. Private and self-financed universities are outside the scheme, because proposals are invited only from existing Central or State Government Universities and Government organisations. Early-stage work is outside it too: the 2020 guidelines state that the scheme "shall not in any case support Pre-Feasibility or Proof of Concept Research", so an idea still being tested for viability does not qualify. And the declaration signed with every proposal certifies that the same research has not been submitted to any other agency for financial support, which closes off parallel funding (2020 guidelines, 2024 guidelines).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no renewal form and no annual re-application. What continues, or stops, is the instalment. The grant is released in three tranches, and the second and third go out only after the department receives a satisfactory achievement-cum-performance report, accepts the Utilization Certificate and the Project Sanctioning Committee approves the release. A Project Monitoring Committee reviews the centre yearly against whatever targets the Sanctioning Committee set, and the department reserves the right to terminate support at any stage if the grant is not being used properly or if progress is not being made (scheme guidelines).

One clause is worth reading before the budget is built. Under the 2020 guidelines, recurring expenditure on research staff and on consumables for the equipment was met from the scheme only up to the first two years, after which the parent institute had to carry it (2020 guidelines). The 2024 guidelines fund research staff till the project period and do not repeat that two-year cut-off (2024 guidelines).

What you get

Award & benefits

The funding pattern is set in the guidelines rather than negotiated per proposal, and most of it is written as a share rather than a rupee figure.

Inside those limits the grant pays for laboratory equipment, plant and machinery, research literature and consumables, Junior Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow and Research Associate positions for the project period, workshops and conferences in the relevant area, and the filing of patents (scheme guidelines). Anything the centre later earns from selling off capital equipment flows back to the centre rather than into the institute's general account (2020 guidelines).

The half the department does not pay is the real test of a proposal. The centre at CSIR-NEIST Jorhat was approved with a total project cost of 24.75 crore against a DCPC grant of 4.99 crore, and the centre at CSIR-NIIST Thiruvananthapuram with a project cost of 15.52 crore against a grant of 5.00 crore (approved Centres of Excellence). An institute without partners or internal funds for that share cannot use a sanction even if it wins one.

• The scheme provides financial support for a maximum of 50% of the total investment or costs of the project, subject to an upper limit of ₹5,00,00,000/-.
• The funding includes support for laboratory equipment, plant and machinery, research literature, and consumables.
• The funding covers support for research staff, including Junior Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow, and Research Associate till the project period.
• The grant covers expenses for organizing workshops, conferences, or seminars in the relevant area, and for the filing of patents.
• The duration of the financial support from the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals is for a period of 5 years.
• The funds will be released to the beneficiary in three installments.
• Any funds generated from the disposal of capital equipment shall be flowed back to the Centre of Excellence.
• A minimum of 50% of the sanctioned grant must be used exclusively for the procurement of equipment for the project.
• Not more than 10% of the total grant sanctioned can be spent for organizing workshops, seminars, and conferences by the Centre of Excellence.
• The second and third installments will be released only after receiving a satisfactory achievement-cum-performance report.
• The subsequent installments are subject to the acceptance of the Utilization Certificate and the approval of the Project Sanctioning Committee.
• The grantee institution must register at the Controller General of Accounts website.
• The grantee must continuously post progress reports and Utilization Certificates under the Expenditure Advance Transfer module.
• Any unspent balance from the sanctioned amount, including accrued interest, must be refunded to the Government of India via an Account’s Payee Demand Draft.
• The grantee must furnish an audited statement of accounts pertaining to the grant at the end of each financial year.
• Half-yearly progress reports detailing equipment purchased, patents filed, and scholar activities must be submitted to the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals.
• All acquired assets must be installed permanently in the premises of the Centre of Excellence and not in any other department.
• The Centre of Excellence must report their achievements yearly to enable documenting success stories and shortcomings.

What to prepare

Documents required

Nothing on the attachment list is a certificate an office issues, because the applicant is an institution rather than a person: what has to be attached is evidence of research already done and of who is on the payroll doing it. The Bond, the half-yearly progress reports, the Utilization Certificate and the audited accounts sit on the same list even though every one of them falls due after a sanction rather than with the proposal, which makes the attachment list a fair preview of what the following five years demand.

The proposal itself goes on the department's own proforma, and its shape matters more than the covering documents. Part I carries general information about the institute, the project title, its duration and total cost. Part II carries the particulars of the Team Leader and co-investigators. Part III carries the technical case: objectives and scope in no more than two pages, work plan and methodology, a time schedule with quantifiable outputs and a PERT chart, outcomes and deliverables during and beyond the project, and a budget break-up split between the Government grant, the applicant institute and any collaborating institutions or industry. Part IV is a signed declaration covering ethical clearances, disclosure of intellectual property to the department and the institute's undertaking to manage the project's finances (scheme guidelines).

Step by step

How to apply

The proposal starts inside the institute, not at the department. The Team Leader prepares the Project Report and submits it to the Head of the institution, who evaluates it for qualitative improvements and then forwards it to the department with specific recommendations, along with observations on the centre's past achievements, its position in existing research, the infrastructure available and the potential for growth. The guidelines explicitly encourage internal competition between different units or centres of the same institute before one proposal is sent out (scheme guidelines).

The scheme record lists the application mode as online, which in practice has meant electronic mail rather than a portal. The 2024 call asked for the proposal, complete in all respects, to be e-mailed to the department, and named a Joint Director as the contact for queries on 011-23385263 (invitation for applications).

Tracking a Proposal and the Money

There is no public status page for a proposal and nothing to log into while it is being assessed. The only visible signal before a decision is the Expert Committee calling the Team Leader in to present. Once a centre is selected and the Bond is signed, tracking becomes financial. Funds move under the Central Nodal Agency Model-II guidelines of the Department of Expenditure (2024 guidelines), and the grantee institution has to register on the Controller General of Accounts site at pfms.nic.in and post progress reports and Utilization Certificates under the EAT module, which is the step that facilitates the next release (2020 guidelines).

For anyone outside the grantee institute, the department's own Centre of Excellence page is the public tracker, because it prints grant approved against grant utilised for every sanctioned centre. As on 31.03.2026 the biodegradable packaging centre at IIT Madras had drawn 1.5 crore of a 4.95 crore sanction, and the coal-to-acetylene centre at IIT (ISM) Dhanbad 0.17 crore of 2.61 crore (approved Centres of Excellence).

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection runs through three named stages. Inside the institute, the Head of the institution filters and forwards. At the department, an Expert Committee chaired by the Joint Secretary hears a presentation from the Team Leader and recommends on the relevance of the work, the current research status of the applicant institute, the quality and expertise of the team, the depth of collaboration with industry and the requirements proposed. Recommended proposals then go to the Project Sanctioning Committee chaired by the Secretary of the department, and a Bond is signed after selection (scheme guidelines).

Approvals arrive in batches rather than in a rolling queue, and the most recent batch shows what a successful proposal was worth.

The earliest sanctions were larger than anything possible now. The centres approved in 2011 and 2013, at CIPET Chennai, CSIR-NCL Pune, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati and CIPET Bhubaneswar, each carry a departmental grant of 6.00 crore (approved Centres of Excellence), above the Rs 5 crore ceiling the current guidelines set (scheme guidelines).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Every selected centre executes a Bond on non-judicial stamp paper before any grant-in-aid is released. Any unspent balance, including interest accrued, goes back to the Government of India by account payee demand draft. A Utilization Certificate and an audited statement of accounts are due at the end of each financial year, and half-yearly progress reports have to list the equipment and machinery purchased, achievements against milestones, the scholars engaged, patents filed or registered, consultancies and the income from them. Assets bought from the grant have to be installed in the centre's premises and not in another department of the host institute, unless the department specifically approves otherwise (scheme guidelines).

Two clauses move risk onto the host institute. The department takes no liability for the manpower the grantee appoints and none for loss of life or property from accident or fire, so safety and insurance for the centre are the institute's obligation, and the grantee indemnifies the department against losses and liabilities (scheme guidelines). Unserviceable capital equipment worth more than Rs. 1.00 lakh cannot be sold off without the department's prior permission (2020 guidelines).

Scrutiny does not end when the money does. After the department's entire share has been released, a team of independent experts evaluates the centre against the outcomes promised, grades it and produces a SWOT analysis noting successes and shortcomings. The department's view on that report is binding on the centre, which then reports its achievements yearly (scheme guidelines).

Get help

Contact

The address on the guidelines is not the one the department publishes today. Both invitation notices print Shastri Bhawan, while the departmental contact record now gives 22019 (KB-II), Kartavya Bhawan, New Delhi-110001, with Ms. Divya Parmar, Economic Adviser, named there as the website's content manager on 24015639 (departmental contact record). Post sent to the older address may still reach the department, but a proposal deadline is not the moment to test that.

For the scheme itself, queries went to the Joint Director named in the last invitation notice, and the scheme record with the official eligibility, benefit and document lists sits on the government's scheme directory (Scheme for Setting Up of Centre of Excellence).

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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References

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