Rules & Procedures

1.		ISRO reserves the right to revoke in whole or in part the funds approved for a project at any time without assigning any reason.
2.		Approved funds must be utilized solely for the purpose for which they have been granted unless ISRO agrees otherwise. A certificate that the funds have been so used must be produced by the grantee Institution at the end of each year of support.
3.		Acknowledgement of ISRO support must be made in all reports and publications arising out of an approved project / investigation. The Institution will take prior permission of ISRO before publishing any work based on an ISRO supported project. Such permission will not be unreasonably withheld.
4.		Two copies of all publications resulting from the research conducted with the aid of the grants should be submitted ISRO.
5.		No investigator receiving a grant from ISRO may make commercial use of the results of the work through patents or otherwise. ISRO reserves the exclusive right to determine whether any patent shall be taken out and for which commercial use, if any, shall be made of any result of the investigations. All patents shall be in the name of ISRO and ISRO shall retain exclusive rights to commercially exploit them. The share, if any, for the royalty to the Investigator, the parent Institution and ISRO will be determined by ISRO.
6.		The Principal Investigator is required to submit two copies of yearly reports indicating the progress of the work accomplished. He is also required to submit two copies of a detailed scientific / technical report on the results of the research and development work after the completion of the project. One copy of these reports should be sent to the address to which the proposal was sent and other to the scientific Secretary, ISRO Headquarters. Annual reports should be sent to enable release of funds for the subsequent year. The reports will become the property of ISRO.
7.		ISRO may designate scientists / specialists to visit the Institution periodically, for reviewing the progress of work on an ISRO-funded project.
8.		An inventory of items purchased from ISRO funds should be sent to ISRO giving the description of the equipment, brief specifications, cost in rupees, date of purchase and name of supplier along with a purchase certificate from the Head of the Institution. All items of equipment and non-consumable items costing more than Rs. 5,000 remain the property of ISRO and ISRO reserves and right to recall, transfer or dispose them off either during the tenure or on the termination of the project.
9.		The accounts of the expenses incurred out of ISRO funds should be properly maintained and should be audited by an approved auditor. The final financial documents comprising of audited accounts statement and fund utilization certificate in duplicate, should be sent to ISRO at the end of each financial year of support. The final financial documents pertaining to the project should be sent to ISRO for every operational year of the project sufficiently in advance to enable the release of funds for the subsequent year. It is the responsibility of the institution to submit the Fund Utilization Certificate (FUC) and Audited Accounts Statement (AAS) to Pay and Accounts Officer (PAO), Department of Space at the end of 12 months from the date of drawl of grant(s) from ISRO for Research Projects and at the end of 6 months for Conferences / Seminars / Workshops / Symposium etc. It is mandatory for all institutions drawing grants from Department of Space to submit all financial documents within the stipulated period and any delay in the submission of the financial documents for all grants drawn from Department to Pay and Accounts Officer (PAO), Department of Space will result in delay in release of funds. In such situations, the PI cannot seek extension of project or modification of objectives of the project.
10.		The funds for the projects are released on annual basis. Further release of funds for ensuing year will be based on the technical performance of the project and utilization of the funds released for the project during the previous year. Any unspent balance shown in the reporting year, will be adjusted with the funds due for release during the next year.
11.		If the total amount sanctioned is not spent during the whole period of support, the remainder amount must be surrendered to the Pay and Accounts Officer, Department of Space, within one month after completion of the project.
12.		The Institution cannot divert the grants for a project to another institution if it is not in a position to execute or complete the assignment. In such a case the entire amount of the grant must be immediately refunded to ISRO.
13.		A register of assets, permanent and semi-permanent, should be maintained by the Institution and this should be available for scrutiny by ISRO staff.
14.		The assets acquired wholly or substantially out of an ISRO grant should not, without prior sanction, be disposed off or transferred to other agencies or utilized for purposes other than that for which the grant is sanctioned.
15.		The terms and conditions of ISRO research grants are subject to change from time to time, but the funding of any project till its completion will be governed by the terms and conditions existed on the date of starting of the project, unless mutually agreed to otherwise. The academic institution / PI cannot claim revision of fellowships or any of its elements from a retrospective date.
16.		ISRO reserves the right to transfer any approved project(s) from one institution to other institutions in the event of institution's inability to continue the project, PI leaving the institution etc.

General Rules

ISRO Research Fellowships, Research Associateships and Research Scientists hereinafter referred to as Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists are awarded for specific projects or Education / Research Schemes approved by ISRO. Change of level of Research Fellow, subsequent to the approval of the project will not be permitted.

The recipients of these Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists are expected to conduct research work whole time under the Principal Investigator of the ISRO sponsored project. In special cases of individual Research Fellows / Associates, the candidates could be governed by the conditions of Research work as specified by the projects / programmes / schemes for which the Fellowships have been offered by ISRO.

ISRO may nominate a member in the committee(s) appointed by the institution in connection with the approved project.

The Fellows / Associates / Scientists, appointed for ISRO project, shall not be transferred from one institution to another.

The award of ISRO Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists does not imply any assurance or guarantee by or from ISRO or any kind of employment to the beneficiaries.

Generally the upper limit for the period of Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists will be the same as that of the project. However, in exceptional cases, mainly to enable the Fellow to complete all formalities required for submission of doctoral thesis, ISRO may consider extension of the fellowship purely based on the merit on case by case basis. However, such extensions cannot be claimed as right by either fellow or PI.

Leave for a maximum period of 30 days in a year, in addition to general holidays, may be allowed to the Fellows / Associates / Scientists during the tenure of Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists by the appropriate authority in the university / institution. The general holidays, however, do not include the vacation period e.g. summer, winter and pooja vacations.

Monthly emoluments of the Fellowships / Associateships / Scientists will be paid by the concerned institution by utilizing the project grant.

Note: The scales of pay, service benefits, terms and conditions, etc for appointment are subject to revision from time to time by the Department of Space / Government of India.

Research Fellowships

Junior Research Fellow (JRF) / Senior Research Fellow (SRF)

Note: The performance of the Jenior Research Fellows (JRF) shall be reviewed on completion of the two years, by an appropriate Review Committee duly constituted by the Directors of Centres / Units. Based on the recommendations of the review committee and approval of the Director of Centre / Unit, Juniour Research Fellow may be awarded the position of Senior Research Fellow (SRF).

Research Associates (RA)

The fellowship for Research Associates may be fixed as a consolidated amount at any of three pay levels given below depending upon the qualification and experiance.

Educational Qualification: Doctorate or equivalent degree in Science / Engineering / Technology or having 3 years of research, teaching and design and development experience after ME / MTech with atleast one research paper in Science Citation Indexed (SCI) journal.

Research Scientists (RS)

The fellowship for Research Scientists remains unaltered

Service conditions

Dearness Allowance: JRFs, SRFs and Research Associates will not be entitled to this allowance. The Research Scientists will be eligible to draw DA as per rates of Central Government as per rules of the local institutions where they are working.

House Rent Allowance: House Rent Allowance will be allowed to all research fellows viz. Junior Research Fellows (JRF), Senior Research fellows (SRF), Research Associates (RA) and Research Scientists (RS), if they are not provided with hostel accommodation, as per rules of the institutions where they are working. For this purpose, the fellowship amount for JRF / SRF / Research Associates and Research Scientists will be taken as Basic Pay.

Medical Allowance: The JRF, SRF, Research Associates and Research Scientists will be allowed medical benefits, as per rule of the institution where they working.

Leave and other service benefits: JRFs / SRFs are eligible only for casual leave while Research Associates / Scientists are eligible for leave as per rules of the Institutions. Maternity leave as per Govt. of India instructions would be available to all female JRFs / SRFs / RAs / RSs.

Participation of JRF / SRF / RA / RS in any scientific event in India or abroad will be treated as "on duty". The travel entitlement for JRF / SRF / RA for participation in scientific events / workshops In India will continue to be the same as earlier i.e., 2^nd AC by rail.

Bonus & Leave Travel Concession: Not admissible to any category.

Retirement Benefits: JRFs / SRFs / Research Associates and Research Scientists will not be entitled to these benefits. However, Research Scientists who are appointed for the duration of the project may be allowed to the members of the New Pension Scheme (NPS) of the Institution.

Encouragement for pursuing higher studies: JRFs / SRFs may be encouraged to register for higher studies and the tuition fees to undertake these studies may be reimbursed from the contingency grant sanctioned under the project grant, if required.

Benefits to Host Institutes: Overhead expenses of 20% of the total project cost not exceeding Rs 3.00 lakhs may be permitted to the host institutions for meeting their costs including infrastructural facilities.

Obligations of JRF / SRF / RA:
a) JRF / SRF / RA / RS shall be governed by the disciplinary regulations of the host institute.
b) The JRF / SRF / RA / RS must send a detailed consolidated report of the research work done during the entire period of Fellowship on      completion of the tenure / resignation at the earliest.

The periodic enhancement of Research fellowship: The Research Fellows, Research Associates and Research Scientists are not entitled for annual increment.

The revised emoluments will take effect from Oct 01, 2014 for all categories of JRF / SRF / Research Associates.