The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has approved a Rs 245-crore Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellowship Programme to support 150 PhD fellowships and promote problem-driven, application-oriented research.
The AICTE Innovation and Entrepreneurship Doctoral Fellowship Programme (AIEDFP), launched by AICTE Chairman Prof Yogesh Singh in the presence of Member Secretary Prof Shyama Rath and senior officials, will be implemented over five years.
The programme aims to strengthen innovation-driven doctoral research, with a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, technology transfer, commercialisation and societal impact.
Under the scheme, each fellow will receive Rs 60,000 per month plus applicable House Rent Allowance (HRA) for the first three years and Rs 70,000 per month plus applicable HRA for the following two years, subject to eligibility and satisfactory academic and research progress.
Each scholar may also receive an Innovation Grant of up to Rs 10 lakh for activities including prototype development, testing and validation, field trials, data collection, consumables, travel and other research-related activities aimed at translating research into deployable solutions.
The programme will support both technological and non-technological innovation and encourage multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research addressing national and global priorities.
It will seek to connect doctoral research with industry and societal challenges and facilitate the progression of promising research outcomes towards higher Technology Readiness Levels.
The programme will also support intellectual property creation, technology transfer and commercialisation. AICTE mechanisms, including KAPILA and YUKTI, may be used for patent filing and innovation translation.
A key component of the programme is collaboration among industry, startups, research organisations, incubators and other stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem. Industry partners and external experts may provide problem statements, infrastructure, datasets and mentorship for application-oriented research.
