STORY CREDITS
Writer/Editor: Shivangi Vasudev Bhatt
Photo: Media and Communication, IIT Gandhinagar
Postdoctoral fellows or senior research staff members act as the linchpin of any academic institution for research and development activities. They work in close coordination with the faculty members as well as postgraduate and undergraduate students. Having developed an excellent and interdisciplinary research ecosystem, the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) has witnessed a significant increase in its Senior Research Staff in one year.
Compared to 34 and 35 Senior Research Staff members as on May 01, 2019, and 2020, respectively, the Institute now has a total of 51 Senior Research Staff as on May 01, 2021. With this remarkable upward trend, the Senior Research Staff at IITGN has now equalled nearly 50% (47.22%) of the total faculty strength at the Institute. The ratio was about 34% in May 2019 and 33% in May 2020.
IITGN has launched several programmes to encourage young researchers and provide impetus to cutting-edge, collaborative and interdisciplinary research in India. The IIT Gandhinagar Early-Career Fellowship (IITGN-ECF) for recent doctorates from all areas of Engineering, Sciences as well as Humanities and Social Sciences launched by the Institute in July 2020, is one such programme that received an overwhelming response from young doctorates from all over the country. The Institute recruited eight ECF fellows last year, who have come from some of the top-notch academic institutions in the country like IITs, NITs, Institute of Mathematical Sciences (IMSc), and IISER Pune. Their research interests span across multiple fields such as Chemical and Biomedical Sensing, Graph Theory, Commutative Algebra, Quantum Optics, Energy Storage Device etc.
The Institute is currently accepting applications from high-calibre young doctorate scholars for IITGN-ECF 2021. Scholars who have successfully defended their PhD thesis from an Indian Institution/University on or after January 1, 2020, with an outstanding academic track record, are eligible to apply for IITGN-ECF by June 18, 2021. The candidates who have submitted their doctoral thesis or expected to submit in the next two-three months are also welcome to apply. Under IITGN-ECF, the young scholars get the opportunity to work with IITGN faculty members on exciting research problems and transformative projects that lead to significant research contributions. Fellows also engage in other scholarly activities such as teaching a course, student mentoring, conducting scholarly activities, and attending international workshops.
The fellowship strives to empower exceptional researchers and thought leaders in pursuing their long-term research and academic aspirations. ECF fellows receive a fellowship of Rs 1 lakh per month, which is nearly double the salary of a regular postdoc fellow. In addition, IITGN offers its ECFs a professional development grant of up to Rs 2 lakh per year to support international travel for attending conferences, workshops, training programmes, etc. The fellowship is awarded initially for one year, which can be extended up to two years in case of outstanding performance. More information for IITGN-ECF is available at: https://www.iitgn.ac.in/research/early_career_fellowship#
Apart from this, the 50-50 Scheme has also attracted high-skilled postdoctoral researchers to work at IITGN. Under this scheme, 50% of the total salary paid to the postdocs is provided by the Institute. The postdoc fellows enrolled under this are working in various research areas like mitochondria targeting, chemo phototherapy, gas separation and membrane synthesis, nanodevice physics and simulation, and so on.
India has huge research talent, and this needs to be channelised constructively by providing them the right opportunities and encouragement in their pursuit of excellence. IITGN has always believed in the capabilities of young scholars. With programmes such as IITGN-ECF, we want to provide an additional avenue to talented recent doctorates and prepare them to be academic leaders for tomorrow.
Sudhir K JainListen to our current Early Career Fellows, who through this video, share their experiences of being an IITGN-ECF Fellow, about the campus, about the available resources, about the faculty members, among others.
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