VAIshwik BHArtiya Vaigyanik (VAIBHAV) Fellowship(VAIBHAV)

Overview

About VAIBHAV

The VAIBHAV Fellowship pays a scientist of Indian origin who is employed abroad to work inside an Indian host institution for one to two months a year, for up to three years, without resigning the overseas job. It is a visiting collaboration, not a return-to-India package.

Two things trip up applicants who read only the scheme summary. The Indian host scientist files the application, not the fellow. And the money is released to the Indian institute, which then pays the fellow.

VAIBHAV sits in the International Cooperation Division of the Department of Science and Technology, and it is built around a pair, not an individual: a diaspora scientist and a named Indian host who agree on a project before anyone applies. The scheme guidelines require the host institute to submit a project proposal, justify its budget, register on the Public Fund Management System, and add a NITI Aayog Darpan registration if it is a private organisation. A brilliant applicant with no willing eligible host has nothing to submit.

The programme grew out of the VAIBHAV Summit, which the Prime Minister inaugurated in October 2020 as a month-long dialogue with the STEMM diaspora, and DST's own programme FAQ describes an intent to award 75 fellowships each year. The published results of the calls run so far are much smaller than that, which is the single most useful number for anyone weighing whether to spend a month assembling the paperwork.

Research proposals must sit inside one of the eighteen verticals DST names in the call, from quantum technologies and semiconductor devices through to agricultural sciences, social sciences for the Sustainable Development Goals, and management. There is no open category outside that list.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

VAIBHAV runs in discrete calls rather than a rolling window, and the published rhythm has not matched practice. DST's programme FAQ says applications are invited twice a year, closing on 31 July and 31 January, and that a call stays open for 45 days. What has actually run is one call a year, closing in July, then March, then May, and the second cycle stayed open from 23 January to 31 March 2024, well past the window the FAQ promises.

The practical reading: watch DST's call-for-proposals listing rather than waiting for a fixed date, and have the host consent letter and the NOC ready in advance, because none of the calls so far has stayed open long enough to start negotiating an Indian collaboration from scratch.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two gates have to open at once, and the second is usually the tighter one.

On the applicant side, the guidelines take NRI, PIO and OCI scientists currently working abroad who hold a PhD, MD, MS or MTech and are in active research, through one of two routes: at least five years in regular or tenure employment at an institute or university inside the top 200 of the QS World University Rankings, subject wise, or at least five years in a reputed industry or research laboratory abroad, where a PhD or post-doctoral fellow does not count. On the host side, the Indian institution must be ranked in the top 200 of the NIRF overall rankings, or hold NAAC 'A+' or above, or be a public funded scientific institute or national laboratory.

There is one live inconsistency worth knowing before you self-assess. DST's older programme FAQ, still posted on the department's site, sets the applicant bar at the top 500 of the QS rankings and asks for a NAAC 'A' host, while the call guidelines attached to the actual call say top 200 and NAAC 'A+'. Where the two disagree, work to the guidelines document that comes with the call you are answering. The same FAQ adds two conditions the call document leaves out: there is no upper age limit, but the applicant should have at least five years left before retirement, and applicants on a student visa are not eligible.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing on the scheme's myScheme entry names a single disqualifier, yet DST's two VAIBHAV documents rule out precisely the group most likely to assume the fellowship was built for them. The fellowship is not open to Indian scientists who have just finished a PhD or post-doctoral stint abroad and are looking for a placement in an Indian institute, nor to Indian researchers already working in India, according to the programme FAQ. On the industry route, a PhD or post-doctoral fellow is explicitly outside the eligible group.

Procedural exclusions bite just as hard. The guidelines state that any shortcoming in the proposal, or any submission made outside the e-PMS portal, results in rejection, that physical and email applications are not considered at all, and that a proposal missed at the deadline will not be taken offline afterwards.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

There is no renewal application. The award is sanctioned for a period of up to three years in one go, and what keeps it alive is reporting: the guidelines require the host institution to send DST a progress report and financial documents at the end of each year, jointly prepared with the fellow, and a project completion report at the end of the third year. DST reserves the right to end the fellowship at any stage if progress is unsatisfactory or the grant has not been properly used, and a fellow who wants to withdraw has to inform DST, per the programme FAQ. The same FAQ limits an applicant to one proposal per calendar year, so an unsuccessful applicant waits for the next cycle rather than re-filing into the same one.

What you get

Award & benefits

The headline figure is per month of residency in India, not per year and not a salary. DST sanctions a fellowship of Rs 4,00,000 a month, as its launch announcement put it, which the scheme guidelines equate to roughly USD 5,000 a month, and a fellow who spends the maximum of two months in a year draws it for those two months only.

None of it reaches the fellow directly. The total eligible grant goes to the Indian host institute, which disburses the fellowship amount and extends the rest of the support, so a fellow's payment timing depends on the host's finance office rather than on DST.

The host's own grant is the second figure DST's two documents disagree on. The guidelines cap institutional support at Rs 5 lakh a year, while the programme FAQ says the host institute will get Rs 10 lakh a year for the same hosting duties. Build the project budget on the guidelines figure, not the FAQ's.

There is also a second, smaller tier. DST's announcement of the first results describes a Distinguished VAIBHAV Fellow, who commits a minimum of one week rather than a full month and a maximum of two months a year, again over three years, and whose brief is to build a network across Indian institutions rather than run a single project. Two were recommended alongside the first batch of fellows, according to DST.

• Emoluments for the Fellowship: Fellowship in ₹4,00,000/- roughly (equivalent to USD 5000 per month), for a minimum of 1 month and a maximum of up to 2 months per year for a period of a maximum of 3 years,
• International Travel from place of work in parent institute to place of work in India in business class once a year,
• Fully furnished Accommodation in the guest house or hotel up to ₹7500/- per day,
• Contingency ₹1,00,000 per year for research expenditure in India
• Domestic Travel (economy class) for academic purposes up to two Indian academic/scientific institutes in a year.
• Note: It may be noted that the total eligible grant will be released to the Indian host Institute and these institutes will be providing a Fellowship amount to the VAIBHAV Fellow and extend other support.
• Institutional Financial Support: The financial support (up to ₹5 Lakhs per year for 3 years) will be given to the host institution to facilitate the VAIBHAV fellow for research work as per DST norms. This funding will cover the following expenses in connection with a project;
• Consumables and Accessories,
• Institutional Overhead

What to prepare

Documents required

The file is assembled by two people, and the host's half is the part that usually holds it up. The applicant contributes a statement of purpose capped at one page, a bio-data in the prescribed format capped at two pages, three years of publications with impact factors, a passport copy, the highest degree certificate, an experience certificate, a signed undertaking in DST's format, and a no-objection certificate from the parent institute. The host contributes a consent letter, a two-page CV and three years of publications for the host scientist, per the guidelines.

Formats are not free-form. The bio-data and the undertaking have to be filed on DST's prescribed proforma, which is downloaded from the e-PMS proposal format page along with the rest of the call pack.

Step by step

How to apply

The host scientist applies on behalf of the diaspora scientist. That is a design choice, not a formality: DST releases funds to the host institution, so the institution is the applicant of record. Applications go online only, through DST's e-PMS portal at onlinedst.gov.in, with the formats downloaded from the proposal format page.

Tracking works through a number, not a dashboard. On submission the system auto-generates a Temporary Project Number, and the guidelines instruct applicants to quote it in every later reference, which is what you cite when you write to the VAIBHAV Cell about a pending file. Outcomes are not sent as individual status updates: DST publishes each call's decision as a results announcement listing every selected pair, such as the Call-2025 result, and its programme FAQ warns that a result may take around six months.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Applications are scored, not screened. The guidelines list the criteria a proposal must address: quality, significance and originality of the research, relevance and benefit to society, knowledge transfer and dissemination, the strength of the partnership, a consent letter from the parent institute, and whether the budget strategy fits the expected outcomes. A review committee of Indian representatives and independent external reviewers examines every proposal, shortlisted applicants may be asked to present online, a proposal has to reach a positive rating to be fundable at all, and the expert committee ranks applicants within each vertical before the government takes the final decision on the recommendation of the VAIBHAV Apex Committee.

The published outcomes give the ratio that no scheme summary carries.

DST states in each announcement that selection turns on scientific merit, how well the project objectives complement each other, the scientific strength of the coordinators, national priorities and the budget available, so a strong proposal in a crowded vertical can lose to a weaker one in a thin vertical.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The obligations sit mostly on the Indian side of the pair. The guidelines require the host institute to provide office and laboratory facilities, consumables and equipment access, to start a project, technology translation, start-up or incubation activity aligned with national priority areas, and to implement the project within three years in consultation with the fellow. The fellow, for their part, owes DST a report within 21 days of completing each visit, setting out what was done or started and what follow-up is needed.

Collaboration is expected to continue between visits through online meetings rather than pausing until the next trip, and the annual progress report has to be prepared jointly by the host and the fellow, which makes a silent partner on either side a reporting problem rather than a private disappointment.

Get help

Contact

Queries go to the VAIBHAV Cell in the International Cooperation Division, Department of Science and Technology, Technology Bhawan, New Delhi-110016. The email address published in the guidelines is vaibhav-india@gov.in, and the same document names an Under Secretary in that cell as the contact officer. Portal problems during submission are an e-PMS matter and are handled through onlinedst.gov.in, not by the scheme cell.

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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