This UGC grant hands working professors up to ₹10 lakh: here’s who qualifies

Faculty members already teaching at Indian universities and colleges now have a defined path to fund their own research, through a scheme the University Grants Commission (UGC) runs under the Department of Higher Education. The Research Grant for In-Service Faculty Members offers regularly appointed academic staff up to ₹10,00,000 to pursue research in their own field, disbursed over a two-year tenure across 200 slots, or as many as the Commission decides to sanction in a given cycle.

Eligibility is tightly scoped to established academics rather than early-career researchers. Applicants must be working in a university (including its constituent or affiliated colleges) recognised under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956, and holding valid NAAC accreditation, or in a deemed university under Section 3 of the same Act, an institution fully funded by the Central or State government with degree-awarding powers, or an Institution of National Importance. Beyond the institutional requirement, the applicant must be under 50 years of age, have at least 10 years of service remaining from the date of application, have successfully supervised five full-time PhD dissertations to completion, and have already completed at least two sponsored research projects funded by a national or international government or private agency.

The money itself comes with defined boundaries on how it can be spent. Funds can go toward minor equipment, consumables, contingencies, fieldwork and travel connected to the research, with the recipient deciding how to split the budget across those heads according to need. International travel, furniture purchases, and hiring a project assistant or research fellow are explicitly excluded. Any equipment bought with the grant remains the property of the university, not the individual researcher.

The grant is paid out in three installments rather than as a lump sum: 50 percent on receipt of the joining report, a further 25 percent once the utilization certificate for the first installment is submitted, and the final 25 percent released on a reimbursement basis after the claims and utilization certificate for the second installment are filed. The full two-year tenure to use the grant runs from the date the first installment is released, not from the date of application.

Applications open once a year and run entirely online through the UGC’s dedicated portal at frg.ugc.ac.in, announced via advertisements in national newspapers, employment news, and a short notification on the UGC’s own website. The process starts with registration on the homepage, followed by login credentials sent by email, completion of an eligibility declaration, and submission of postgraduate and PhD academic details through a data-capturing dashboard before a final declaration and submission. Applicants need a scanned passport-size photograph and signature under 1MB in jpg format, a complete research proposal of up to 5MB with an abstract under 1MB, and a signed printout of the auto-generated application form uploaded before final submission. No hard-copy applications are accepted at any stage, and the application process itself carries no fee. Applicants who are ineligible after being awarded the grant, or found guilty of misconduct, plagiarism, or furnishing false information, can have the award terminated, though they are given a chance to respond before that happens.

The scheme is administered by the University Grants Commission under India’s Ministry of Education. Faculty members with questions about eligibility or the application process can reach the UGC scholarship helpdesk at 011-23604446 or 011-23604200, or by email at webmaster.ugc.help@gmail.com.

Source: myscheme.gov.in

Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala. Wikimedia Commons/by Diaspora dept.