CHENNAI: The higher education department has allocated a sum of Rs 12.31 crore for the implementation of the Chief Minister Research Fellowship (CMRF) programme, which was announced by Chief Minister MK Stalin in August 2022.
The government order in this regard was issued on Thursday stating that as many as 120 research scholars 60 from the Science stream and 60 from the Arts humanities and social science streams —will be awarded the fellowship.
Under this programme, the scholars will be provided with a stipend of Rs 25,000 per month for the first three years. Adding to this, a research contingency stipend of Rs 10,000 and Rs 12,000 will be provided annually to arts and science scholars respectively.
The government has also decided to provide an additional Rs 2,000 per month to disabled research scholars for reader assistance. Apart from supporting the research work, the government will also help the research scholars with patent publication and Rs 10 lakh is allocated for it.
The selection process for the fellowship programme will be done through a state-level entrance test and the Teachers’ Recruitment Board (TRB) has been authorized to conduct it. A total of Rs 50 lakh has been allocated for it. Similarly, a web portal at a cost of Rs 15 lakh will be created to provide information about CMRF among the masses.
To ensure smooth implementation of the scheme, two high-level committees--the CMRF selection cum monitoring committee and the CMRF state-level steering committee-- will be formed. These committees will include officials from the higher education department, the Directorate of Collegiate education, experts from state universities and colleges, eminent academicians and a representative from the finance department, said sources.
A higher education department official said, “The main objective of the fellowship programme is to provide a research platform to meritorious postgraduate students from poor financial backgrounds. The move will aid in developing research activities in higher educational institutions, which can, in turn, make Tamil Nadu a research hub.”