CoDe-Mat Lab @ CSIR-IICT

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Travel & Funding

Conference travel

Talk to your advisor as early as possible — many grants and institutional funds have deadlines well before the conference itself.

I’ll try to support travel to conferences, schools, hackathons, and workshops, even when it isn’t directly tied to your specific project. Our own group funding is limited, though, so for international trips it’s worth seeking support from external agencies alongside (or instead of) group funds. A few options worth knowing about:

  • CSIR Travel Grant Scheme — run by CSIR-HRDG, this covers young Indian researchers (PhD students, Research Associates, etc.), Emeritus Scientists, and other non-regular researchers presenting a paper at an international conference, seminar, symposium, workshop, or short-term school/training program. It provides reimbursement of airfare (up to full economy fare) from the nearest airport to your workplace in India to the event venue and back. Full details and the application process are on the CSIR-HRDG Travel Grants page.

  • ANRF International Travel Support (ITS) (formerly a SERB scheme) — provides economy-class return airfare, airport tax, and visa fees for presenting an original paper, chairing a session, or giving a keynote at an international event abroad; young researchers (under 35) attending a training program, short-term school, or workshop are also covered, with an additional registration-fee reimbursement (actual cost or ₹50,000, whichever is lower). A few things worth flagging since they trip people up: applications must be submitted online 60–90 days before the event start date (not earlier, not later), you can’t have used the scheme in the last 3 years, and reimbursement excludes things like taxi fares and post-conference personal travel. See the ANRF ITS page for the full eligibility rules, document checklist, and FAQ.

  • Other possibilities to check, depending on the event and your career stage:

    • The conference or school itself — many international conferences and summer schools (e.g. Psi-k, CECAM, Gordon Research Conferences, MRS, APS) offer their own travel bursaries, fee waivers, or reduced rates for students and researchers from developing countries. Worth checking the event website before assuming there’s no support.
    • Professional society student/travel grants — e.g. Materials Research Society (MRS) graduate student awards, American Physical Society (APS) travel grants for student presenters, IUPAC/IUCr young-scientist travel support for their respective conferences.
    • DST (via ANRF) and INSA occasionally run their own travel/exchange support schemes for young researchers; worth a periodic check even outside ITS.
    • Your host institute’s own travel grant or symposium grant schemes, if separate from CSIR-HRDG’s — check with the institute’s academic/administration office.

Always talk to me well before you start planning a conference. Securing and processing internal funding takes time, and the same is true for external funding — the ANRF ITS window above is a good example of how far in advance you sometimes need to move.

It’s completely fine to attend purely as a participant. That said, I’d encourage you to take a more active role where you can: giving a talk, presenting a poster, taking part in a hackathon, and so on. Going somewhere and having a presence there is also, in a very real sense, free advertising for the group. If you’re presenting, we’ll do one or more rehearsals together (or work through a poster draft together) beforehand.

Reimbursement

Keep every receipt. Submit reimbursement requests within the window your institution requires (often 30–60 days).

Fellowships & grants

Applying for your own funding is always encouraged, as long as there’s no conflict with your position or obligations at the institute — check with the institute (and with me) before applying, especially for anything involving extended time abroad or a change in funding source.

Some options worth considering, depending on your career stage:

  • Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) — for PhD students, among the most prestigious fellowships currently available in India.
  • DST INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship — for early-career researchers transitioning toward independent positions.
  • ANRF National Post Doctoral Fellowship (N-PDF) and ANRF Ramanujan Fellowship — postdoctoral and early-independent-research support (formerly SERB schemes, now under ANRF).
  • CSIR Nehru Science Postdoctoral Fellowship and CSIR Senior Research Associateship — see the CSIR-HRDG Fellowships page for current calls.
  • Raman Postdoctoral Fellowship (UGC) — for postdoctoral research at leading US institutions.
  • Humboldt Research Fellowship (Germany) and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) (EU) — well-regarded postdoctoral fellowships for research abroad, open to researchers from any country.
  • L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science, India — for women researchers, including PhD and postdoctoral stages.

If you’re putting together an application, ask the group for examples of previously successful ones — seeing how someone else structured their proposal is usually more useful than starting from a blank template.

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