BHUBANESWAR: The common PhD entrance examination to select fellows for the Mukhyamantri Research Fellowship (also called Chief Minister Research and Innovation Fellowship Programme) has been tentatively scheduled for November this year. This was informed by the Higher Education department on Monday.
The fellowship, which has been designed by the Odisha State Higher Education Council, will be launched for the new 2023-24 academic year. Apart from science scholars, it would cover postgraduates in humanities disciplines who are currently not receiving any scholarship from the Central government funding agencies.
Releasing the modalities of the fellowship, officials of the department informed that the examination will be conducted by the State Selection Board in coordination with the council. It will be designed on the lines of UGC CSIR NET in a multiple-choice pattern but will have no negative marking.
An enhanced version of the existing Odisha University Research and Innovation Incentivisation Plan (OURIIP), the new fellowship programme would provide a monthly research fellowship grant of Rs 30,000 to 300 research scholars pursuing PhD in state’s public universities for a period of five years. Besides, they will get an annual contingency amount of Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 for science and social science subjects respectively.
The fellowship is an improved version of OURIIP scheme which currently offers Rs 15,000 per month to only NET-qualified research scholars. The scholars need to have first division at UG and PG level from a recognised university to be eligible for appearing for the exam.
“They will be evaluated on general knowledge, research aptitude, logical reasoning, as well as subject knowledge, and analytical abilities. 47 subjects have been finalised for the examination,” said an official.
The research scholars apart, competitive seed research funding grants will be provided every year to 60 faculty members with PhD up to the age of 50 years of public universities for a period of two years. In case of science faculty, the grants will be Rs 10 lakh and Rs 7 lakh for those teaching social sciences and humanities. Eligibility-wise, the faculty members too must have obtained first division in both UG and PG levels.