Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme for Electronics and IT: Young Faculty Research Fellowships(VPHD_YFRF)

Overview

About VPHD_YFRF

This is the one part of the Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme where the money reaches somebody who is already on a payroll. The Young Faculty Research Fellowship (YFRF) sits alongside full-time PhD seats, part-time PhD seats and post-doctoral fellowships inside the same guidelines document, and it is the only component whose beneficiary must already hold a regular position at the nominating institution. Administration is split in two. Ownership and the budget sit with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Everything operational sits one level down, at a PhD Cell inside Digital India Corporation that issues the calls, runs the portal and processes awards.

Phase-II provisions 50 of these fellowships, released at 10 awards a year, against 1,000 full-time PhD seats, 150 part-time seats and 225 post-doctoral fellowships in the same document (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 2.1 to 2.3). That makes YFRF the smallest and slowest-moving component in the scheme, and the numbers bear it out. MeitY's own annual report for 2024-25 recorded 11 YFRF awards made under Phase-II with finalisation of 30 more underway (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Annual Report 2024-25). Digital India Corporation's later status note puts the running total at 24 YFRF awardees selected (Digital India Corporation).

The provision shrank sharply between the two phases, which is worth knowing before reading older pages about this fellowship. Phase-I was built around 200 Young Faculty Research Fellowships, a figure the ministry gave the Lok Sabha in 2018 (Press Information Bureau). It ended with 158 of them awarded, and closed in December 2025 on an approved outlay of Rs 466 crore; Phase-II carries Rs 481.93 crore over nine years from September 2021 (Digital India Corporation). So a college page still advertising 200 fellowships is quoting a phase that has finished.

Whatever the proposal argues, it has to land inside the two sectors the scheme was written for, Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT and IT Enabled Services (IT/ITES). What that has meant in practice is visible in the areas the PhD Cell says work has actually been done in: image processing, DSP, pattern recognition, 3D printing, 5G communications, artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, distributed computing, cyber security, green and sustainable ICT, quantum computing and communication, and semiconductor design (Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme FAQs). A proposal that reads as general science, with no line back to electronics or IT, is arguing against the scheme's own scope.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

There is no annual calendar for YFRF. The scheme record carries no opening or closing date, and the guidelines say only that nominations are invited for each round of call for applications, which the PhD Cell issues periodically. Rounds are real and dated, though, and they are short: in the most recent one visible on an institution's notice board, proposals for the Young Faculty Research Fellowship were invited until 16 May 2025, with the call pointing institutions at the official YFRF guidelines and the portal user manual (Manipur University).

The scheme itself is running and has room left. Phase-II was approved for nine years from September 2021 and 24 of the 50 fellowships had been selected as of Digital India Corporation's status note (Digital India Corporation), so roughly half the provision is still unallocated. Because a call reaches faculty through their institution's Nodal Officer rather than through a public advertisement, the practical answer to "when is the next round" is that the Nodal Officer will know before any scholarship listing does.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Most nominations that fail are decided by two lines that say nothing at all about the research idea. The applicant has to hold a regular position at the institute and be engaged in research, and the upper age limit is 40 years on the date the application is submitted (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 6.5 and 6.6). A contract appointment, a visiting post or a post-doctoral position is not a regular position, and the age is read on a submission date the institution controls rather than on the date an award is announced.

The academic clause is stricter than it first looks. It asks for a PhD from a recognised university with first class in all preceding levels and a good academic record throughout, which reaches back past the doctorate to every degree before it (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.4). A career that recovered after a weak bachelor's degree is exposed here in a way it is not in most research grants. Indian citizenship is a separate line in the same clause set.

Then there is the institution, and it is tested before the person is. IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, central universities, deemed universities under the central government, colleges and institutions of national importance qualify outright. Everyone else has to earn the place through a three-part test. State and provincial universities, private and private deemed universities, PhD-granting colleges and other academic or R&D bodies need a postgraduate stream in electronics or IT already running, PhDs produced in those areas across the last three years, and accreditation on one of two routes, AICTE recognition with NBA for those programmes or NAAC (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 3.1 and 3.2). A faculty member at an institution outside that list has no route in, however strong the record.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

Nothing in the record is headed exclusions, so the bars have to be read out of the fellowship's own clauses, and five of them decide most cases before a proposal is drafted. YFRF can be availed only once in a career. A fellow may not draw any other fellowship from any government or non-government source for the duration of the tenure. Proposals travel through eligible institutions only, so an individual submission has nowhere to land. The fellowship is tenable only in India. And it is non-transferable, with the research to be carried out in the same institution that nominated the fellow (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 6.7, 6.8, 6.10, 6.13 and 6.14).

The once-in-a-career bar is the one that changes how the fellowship should be timed. Since it cannot be won twice and cannot be held next to another fellowship, taking it early in a career forecloses using it later, when a larger research programme might have absorbed the grant better. A faculty member who already has a running fellowship also has to close that out before the nomination goes in, which is a decision the institution cannot take on their behalf.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Continuation is decided every year, not at the end. The award is made initially for two years and is extendible to a maximum of five, with a detailed performance assessment conducted annually and the decision on continuation taken on that basis (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 6.11 and 6.15). The PhD Cell describes the same thing from the other end when it summarises the maximum tenure as five years subject to performance review after two years (Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme FAQs). There is no separate extension application named anywhere; what exists is a review the fellow either clears or does not.

Alongside that annual review sits a power to stop the award mid-stream. Inadequate progress, improper use of the grant, non-compliance with the guidelines, or any other reason the PhD Cell considers appropriate can put a fellowship on hold or end it, and the same clause reserves a periodic review at the cell's own discretion on top of the annual one (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.15).

Voluntary exit also runs through the institution rather than through the fellow. Where a fellow wants to discontinue, the institution informs the scheme and gives one month's notice to Digital India Corporation before the discontinuation date; no expenditure may be incurred from the date of termination or the fellow's resignation; and the institution still has to produce the work report and the remaining documents from the awardee (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.15). An award that ends early is therefore the institution's paperwork problem as much as the fellow's.

What you get

Award & benefits

Two figures make up the whole package: Rs 20,000 a month in addition to the awardee's regular income, and a Research Contingency Grant of Rs 5 lakh a year, with the host institution expected to supply the administrative and infrastructural support around the work (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 6.1, 6.2 and 6.12). The proportion between them is the point. The grant is the larger commitment by a wide margin, which makes this closer to a small research budget with a personal top-up attached than to a stipend.

What that grant can pay for is defined narrowly in the guidelines and then widened by clarifications the scheme circulated to participating institutions. The guidelines allow minor equipment, consumables and domestic travel (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.12). The circulated clarifications, published on the scheme pages of the institutions that host these fellows, add three things: equipment, manpower and similar expenses relevant to the fellow's research may be met from the Rs 5,00,000 a year; the grant may fund an international conference trip for a researcher working under the fellow's guidance who is presenting a paper co-authored with the fellow, even when the fellow does not attend; and an unspent balance in one year may be carried forward to the next while the fellow is still supported at that institute (Manipur University, NIT Warangal). Manpower and a student's conference travel are the two lines that are easy to miss and hard to replace from a departmental budget.

The monthly figure has not moved in a long time, and there is no sign it is about to. The same Rs 20,000 a month over the regular income was already being paid under Phase-I when the ministry set the scheme out for Parliament in 2018 (Press Information Bureau), and when beneficiaries asked for a hike during Digital India Corporation's live question session in November 2024, the recorded reply was that it had been decided to maintain the status quo on the existing fellowship and other financial components at present (Digital India Corporation, scheme question session). Anyone modelling this against a stipend that is periodically revised should plan on a flat number.

Seen against the scheme's other components, the design of each one follows who the beneficiary already is.

• Nature of Support: Research Fellowship: ₹20,000/- per month, in addition to the regular salary - Research Contingency Grant: ₹5,00,000/- per year for a maximum of 5 years - The fellowship is tenable only in India and can be implemented in any of the recognized & eligible academic and R&D institution.
• Research Contingency Grant can be used for minor equipment, consumables and domestic travel. The host institution should provide necessary administrative and infrastructural support for YFRF.
• The fellows are not eligible to receive any other fellowship from any Government or Non-Government source during the tenure of the fellowship.
• YFRFs are non-transferrable. The research work is to be carried out in the same eligible institution though which YFRF proposal was submitted.
• Duration of Support: The fellowship is purely a temporary assignment, and is tenable for a maximum period of 05 years.
• The award will initially be for 2 years and further extendible, based on performance review.

What to prepare

Documents required

There is no candidate-level document checklist for YFRF, and that follows from the design rather than from a gap in the record: the nomination is an institutional submission, so the paperwork is the institution's.

The portal user manual shows what has to exist before a nomination can be filed at all. The institution needs a registered account opened by the Head of the Institution, whose profile is verified through Meri Pehchan and DigiLocker; a Nodal Officer appointed with name, designation and contact details, and verified through a link generated for them; and a completed institute profile carrying NIRF rankings along with previous years' intake and previous years' produce (YFRF user manual, PhD Cell). An institution that has never held a Visvesvaraya seat is starting all of that from scratch, which is why a first-time nomination takes longer than the call window suggests.

The one document that carries a signature is the proposal itself. The portal generates it, the institution prints it, and it goes back up signed and stamped by both the Head of the Institution and the Nodal Officer. Everything a faculty member supplies feeds that document, which is why the scheme record sends applicants to their own institution for the forms.

Step by step

How to apply

A faculty member does not open an account anywhere. The sequence in the user manual runs through the institution: the Head of the Institution registers on the scheme portal at phd.digitalindiacorporation.in and has the account approved by the PhD Cell, appoints and verifies a Nodal Officer, completes the institute profile, and only then opens Proposals, selects YFRF and uses Apply now. Details for up to three nominations go into that one proposal, and three per institution for each round of call for applications is the ceiling the guidelines set (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.9). Submitting generates the proposal document for download; it is printed, signed and stamped, uploaded again through Upload Signed Proposal, and confirmed on screen.

So the real application is internal, and it happens before any of that. Whoever wants the fellowship has to persuade the Head of the Institution and the Nodal Officer to spend one of the three slots on them, with a research plan the institution is willing to put its stamp on. In a department with dozens of eligible faculty, that internal shortlist is the first place a candidacy can end.

Tracking a Nomination After Submission

The portal has no candidate login, so there is no personal status page to refresh, and three things are all that can actually be watched. The on-screen confirmation after the signed proposal is uploaded is the institution's proof that the submission completed (user manual). The Nodal Officer holds the account through which any query about that submission is raised, which is why the scheme insists every participating institution names one. And outcomes appear on the scheme portal's notifications page, which is where participating institutes tell their own faculty to look: IIITDM Kancheepuram's scheme page asks readers to visit the portal's notifications section periodically for YFRF awards and updates (IIITDM Kancheepuram). Anyone waiting on a result is waiting on the Nodal Officer and on that page, in that order.

How winners are picked

Selection process

The published account of selection is one sentence long: the PhD Cell invites nominations periodically from eligible institutions, the nominations received are evaluated by experts, and the fellowships are awarded accordingly (Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme FAQs). No score sheet, interview stage or weighting is published. The standing body behind that evaluation is an Academic Committee of domain experts constituted to oversee the scheme and settle its technical and academic questions (Press Information Bureau), and the guidelines close the question by making the award, its continuation and its discontinuation matters of the ministry's sole discretion, final and binding on applicants (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 8.6).

That leaves two filters a candidate can actually read. The first is the nomination cap, which makes the institution's internal shortlist the tightest gate in the process at any well-staffed department. The second is scope: the evaluation is looking for research in ESDM and IT/ITES, and the list of areas already supported under the scheme is the closest thing to a published guide on what has counted.

Scarcity is the third thing to price in, even though it is not a rule. Phase-II is designed to release 10 awards a year against a total of 50 (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 2.2), which is ten faculty members a year across every eligible institution in the country.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The guidelines describe the award as purely a temporary assignment, which matters for anyone reading it as a career step: it adds money and a research budget to a post that already exists, and it creates no post of its own (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clause 6.11). Intellectual property generated under the scheme is governed by the ministry's existing rules; participating institutions are subject to audit of their scheme accounts and records under government norms; and assets created out of the research grant stay with the institution for its research work after the scheme ends (Phase-II scheme guidelines, clauses 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4). The ministry also reserves the right to add to, delete from or modify the guidelines at its own discretion, so the version an institution downloads at the start of a round is the one that governs that round.

Get help

Contact

The first contact is inside the institution, not at the ministry. Every participating institution appoints a Nodal Officer for the scheme, and that officer holds the portal account through which a nomination is filed and followed up.

Behind that officer sits the PhD Cell at Digital India Corporation, which the user manual tells a newly registered institution to telephone for approval of its account before anything else can be done on the portal (user manual). Postal correspondence for the cell goes to the corporation's registered office in Electronics Niketan Annexe on Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110003 (Digital India Corporation). No YFRF helpdesk email is published in the scheme guidelines, so a faculty member with a question about a live nomination has one route, and it is the Nodal Officer's account.

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.

Explore more

Related scholarships

References

Sources