India Alliance to extend Rs 624cr Fellowships

The Wellcome Trust-DBT India Alliance, a joint venture between the department of biotechnology and Wellcome Trust, a UK-based charity that funds biomedical research, has earmarked GBP 80 million (approximately Rs 624 crore) for extending fellowships to Indian researchers.

“About 70 fellowships will be offered every year and the programme will run for five years to start with. The idea behind the initiative is to bring back a lot of talent to India, reversing the ‘brain drain’ and keeping them here,” Anuradha Lohia, chief executive of the Hyderabad-headquartered alliance, told mediapersons on Thursday.

The India Alliance will offer three levels of fellowships – early career fellowships for newly qualified postdoctoral researchers, intermediate fellowships to attract postdocs who have 4-5 years of experience abroad, and senior fellowships for postdocs of 10 years of experience who want to make India as their home base, she added.

The fellowships will be offered across the full spectrum of biomedical research – from fundamental molecular and cellular studies to clinical and public health research. “We have received 60 applications for early career fellowships and the selections will be announced in a week from now,” Lohia said.