Objective:
The Start-up Research Grant (SRG) scheme aims to assist researchers to initiate their research career in a new institution. It is a two-year grant meant to enable researchers working in frontier areas of science and engineering to establish themselves and move on to the mainstream core research grant (CRG). Criteria for selection would be based on the track record of the applicant and the proposed research plan.

• Research grant of Rs. 30 lakh plus overheads for a period of two years.
• The research grant will cover equipment, research personnel, consumables, travel and contingency apart from overheads. There is a standard cap for travel, contingency and overheads. Applicant has the flexibility to propose budget under various heads as per requirement.
• SRG would be a one-time career grant.
• Maximum number of grants awarded per year would be 500 across all subject areas.

• The applicant should be an Indian citizen. Foreign Nationals (including PIO, OCI) working as regular employee in any of the public funded and recognized R&D laboratories/institutions in India are eligible to apply as PI in collaboration with an Indian Co-PI, provided they fulfill the eligibility criteria notified by SERB (SERB Funding Guidelines for foreign nationals dt. 27 Oct 2016).
• The applicant should hold Ph.D. degree in Science or Engineering or M.D. / M.S. / M.D.S. / M.V.Sc. degree.
• The applicant must hold a regular academic/research position in a recognized academic institution or national laboratories or any other recognized R&D institutions.
[The term "Regular" refers to:
(1) Those who are appointed by the institutions against the 'sanctioned' post. Such positions are regularized/confirmed after the probation period is over
(2) Those who are appointed in a tenure post, but are likely to be renewed after the end of the tenure].
• The applicant is eligible to apply within two years of joining the institution.
• The upper age limit for SRG would be 42 years, with a relaxation of three years for SC/ST/OBC/ Physically challenged and women candidates.
• INSPIRE Faculty, Ramanujan and Ramalingaswamy Fellows, Faculties recruited through UGC Faculty Recharge Program are not eligible under SRG.
• Research Associates, Postdoctoral Fellows, Ad-hoc faculty, Guest faculty, Visiting Scientist, Consultant, Project Fellows and faculty members whose contract is renewed every year are not eligible under SRG. In respect of casesthat are not mentioned above, SERB reserves the right to determine the eligibility.
• Co-PIs are not allowed except in case of foreign nationals.
• The applicant should not have received YSS, ECR, CRG (erstwhile EMR) or any other grant of SERB.

• Call for applications will be notified through the websites www.serbonline.in and www.serb.gov.in . The application should be submitted online at www.serbonline.in
• Selection will be based on the recommendations of Expert Committee constituted by the Board.

• If any Principal Investigator (PI) wishes to terminate the project, they shall inform the SERB through the host institute immediately with proper justifications. The implementing institute should not incur any expenditure from the date of termination of the project or the date of resignation of PI. The institute must also arrange for submission of relevant documents.
• SERB reserves the right to terminate the project at any stage if it is convinced that (i) appropriate progress is not being made (ii) the grant has not been utilized properly(iii) furnishing of false information or suppression of factual information.
• Projects sanctioned under SRG cannot be transferred to any other person/s.
• Transferof approved/sanctioned SRG project to another institution will be considered only in the following cases: (i) From private/public/government institution to any other public/government institution (ii) General administrative transfers in government or public funded institutions.
• Change of institute will not be considered in any other cases.

Proposals submitted need to be original and plagiarism in any form will not be acceptable. All submitted proposals would be subjected to a third party similarity check and proposals are liable to be rejected if found plagiarised. Any text taken verbatim from other source needs to be identified using quotation marks and proper reference. Applicants are requested to pre-check their proposals for plagiarism before uploading to avoid any serious repercussions at a later stage.

SERB has adopted Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy to imbibe a culture of social commitment among SERB Grantees. The policy intends to effectively utilize scientific infrastructure and expertise of SERB grantees to benefit other S&T stakeholders especially the less-endowed researchers and the society. SERB Grantees need to undertake some SSR activities during their project period. SSR activities need to be chosen after approval and depending on the activities chosen additional budget would be provided under separate head to carry out the chosen activities.

• Applicants should first register inSERB online portal click here to register
• After log-in, applicants are required to fill all the mandatory fields in Profile Detail section under User Profile, which includes Bio data, photo, Institute Address, etc.
• Some of the details of proposal like Project Title (max 500 characters), Project summary (max 3000 characters), Keywords (max 6), Objectives of project (max 1500 characters), Expected output and outcome of the proposal (max 1500 characters), Budget (Research Personnel, Consumables, Travel, Equipment, Contingency, Overheads ) have to be entered at the time of proposal submission.
• Other relevant information of the proposal has to be uploaded as a single PDF file, not more than 10 MB, as technical document (TD)

• Biodata (under user profile section) Download Template
• Certificate from Principal Investigator Download Template
• Endorsement Letter from the Head of Institution Download Template
• Age Proof Certificate (Class X marksheet or Birth certificate)
• Category Certificate (in case of Age Relaxation)
• Plagiarism undertaking Download Template