Ministry of Science & Technology
Department of Science & Technology

"Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure in Universities and Higher
Educational Institutions (FIST) Program - 2019"

Proposals are invited online for consideration of support under the Scheme "Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST)" of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India. The Scheme is intended to provide basic infrastructure and enabling facilities for promoting R&D activities in new and emerging areas and attracting fresh talents in universities & other educational institutions. It is considered as complimentary support for enabling Departments/ Centres/ Schools/ Colleges to pursue research activities more effectively and efficiently.

Nature of Support: The Scheme will provide optimal infrastructure facilities for post-graduate teaching and research, such as, renovation of existing laboratory space (no fresh constructions) and cold room, modernization of laboratories involved in PG teaching and research, acquisition of essential equipment, up-gradation of existing facilities, networking & computational facilities including software & databases, scientific & technical books (no journals), maintenance & refurbishing of existing and new facilities etc.. The facilities provided under the Program are intended to support the efforts of the Department as a whole or a number of faculty members in the Department. Proposal towards individual R&D support would not be accepted under this Scheme.

Duration: The duration of support for each project will be for a period not exceeding 5 years.

Eligibility: For University / Degree awarding Academic Institutions, the support will be considered for the 'Department / School / Center' as a unit. All Science (including Medical & Agriculture) and Engineering Departments/ Centres having strong PG teaching and research programs which have existed for at least 3 years or more in universities and other higher educational institutions recognized or regulated by UGC/ AICTE and/or MHRD/ State Education Department based, are eligible seeking support for the 1st time. All other agency based academic University/ Institutes are excluded from the scope of FIST support. The Department/ Centre/ School already supported under FIST Program may submit fresh proposal after completion of the ongoing project duration, provided such projects completed in all respects and obtained 'Completion Certificate' whose copy may be attached in the current proposal. The number of Core Faculty Members with PhD degree in the Department/ Centre/ School shall be at least 5 (Five), 8 (Eight) and 10 (Ten) for Level I, Level II and Level III, respectively. For applying under Level III support, the concerned Department must have been in existence for at least 15 years and implemented at least two (2) FIST Projects at Level II category and have obtained one 'Excellent' and one 'Very Good' grading in last two FIST Level 'II' Projects. Those Departments that have completed 2 cycles of support in any particular level i.e. Level I or Level II and which would be not eligible in normal way to next higher level after 2 cycles of support may be considered for support, only for research, with the maximum quantum equal to 50% of upper limit of support in any given category as a upper limit in 3rd cycle of support (i.e. an upper limit of Rs 1.5 crore in Level I and Rs 5.0 crores in Level II for research purposes only).

For College, the support to 'College as a whole' shall be considered for the post-graduate S & T departments which are not self financed.

PRIVATE Academic University/ College/ Institution and GOVT. AIDED Colleges under Not-for-Profit status would be considered as Non-Government Organization (NGO) and shall use 'NGO/ VO' option during the process of online submission of proposal. For Self-financed post-graduate departments and Private Universities/ Academic Institutes including Colleges, support shall be considered only on merit of research activities for research facilities. Such departments of the University or "College as a whole" should have at least 50% students at the PhD level pursuing their PhD as full time Research Scholar and receiving their fellowships either by virtue of NET/GATE qualification or holder of Institute/any other agency fellowship and such department would need to contribute 50 % of total recommended budget (For more details please visit: www.fist-dst.org).

Type of Support:

(1) Level - 0: Proposals from Govt./ Govt. aided Colleges shall be considered for a maximum support of up to Rs. 150 lakh [Teaching facilities - Rs 50 lakh and Research facilities - Rs 100 lakh] and proposals from private/ self financed Colleges shall be considered for a maximum support up to Rs. 100 lakh [only for Research facilities] for the S & T departments for 5 years.

(2) Level - I: Proposals from relatively small but active post-graduate S&T Department from State & Central Universities and degree awarding academic Institutions requiring moderate funding for improving quality of teaching & research. The support would be up to Rs 300 lakh for 5 years for augmentation of teaching and research facilities to a Department/ School/ Centre.

(3) Level - II: Proposals from well established S&T Department from State/ Central Universities and degree awarding academic Institutions with high repute requiring substantial funding (upper limit - Rs.1000 lakh for 5 years) for acquiring state-of-the-art equipment & setting up laboratories for conducting internationally competitive research.

(4) Level - III: Proposals from well established, internationally competitive S&T Department from State/ Central Universities and degree awarding academic Institutions. The upper limit of funding support would be Rs 2000.0 lakh for 5 years) for acquiring only state-of-the-art very sophisticated equipment/ facilities.

Selection: The selection will be through a peer review mechanism and visit to the laboratories, if necessary. An Advisory Board of Experts will assist the DST in making final selection.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING ONLINE APPLICATION

1. Log on onlinedst.gov.in to access the home page of the "DST e-PMS Portal".2. Before filling up the form candidates are advised to carefully go through the Relevant Advertisement published at the DST FIST Website (www.fist-dst.org) and also available under Proposal Formats in the e-PMS Portal after logging in the portal site.

3. To save your time and avoid data loss please download the appropriate proposal format as suitable for your either Department [LEVEL I/ LEVEL II/ LEVEL III] or PG College [LEVEL 0], fill all the information required as per the format as a Word and PDF file (max. size 5Mb) and then keep it ready for upload during submission of mandatory documents.

4. Click on "Submit proposals" link which would take you to a page seeking multiple information starting with - General information, Principal investigator etc. Please note for FIST Program you do not need to fill - Suggested referees and Current Ongoing Project. Fill all the mandatory information sought against each menu except (Suggested referees and Current Ongoing Project).

5. After filling all above particulars there is provision for preview your detail before final submission of application form on clicking on "Preview" button. Preview page will display all facts/particulars that you have mentioned on entry time if you are sure with filled details then click on "Submit" button to finally push data into server.

6. Candidates are advised to carefully fill and verify the details filled in the online application themselves as no change will be possible/ entertained after clicking the FINAL SUBMIT BUTTON.

LAST DATE FOR RECEIPT OF APPLICATIONS:

Online Application must be submitted by 15 May, 2019 after which the web-link will be AUTOMATICALLY disabled FOR ANY USAGE.

For any enquiry, contact:
Dr Arindam Bhattacharyya
Email id: a.bhattacharyya@nic.in

PLEASE NOTE

1 IT IS MANDATORY TO SUBMIT THE PROPOSALS ONLY THROUGH ONLINE MODE.

2 THE DEPARTMENTS ARE REQUIRED TO SEE THE COMPLETENESS OF THE APPLICATION BEFORE IT IS SUBMITTED FINALLY. SINCE THREE (3) CHANCES ARE AVAILABLE FOR SUBMISSION OF A PROPOSAL FROM THE SAME DEPARTMENT/ COLLEGE, THE LAST PROPOSAL SUBMITTED WOULD BE CONSIDERED FOR EVALUATION. THE DEPARTMENT/ COLLEGE SHALL KEEP A COPY OF THE SUBMITTED PROPOSAL FOR THEIR REFERENCE. THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO SUBMIT HARD COPY OF THE PROPOSAL AT THE DST.

3 INCOMPLETE OR WRONGLY FILLED UP APPLICATION FORMAT OR APPLICATION WITH LACK OF ESSENTIAL INFORMATION/ DOCUMENTS WILL BE SUMMARILY REJECTED. ANY LEGAL PROCEEDINGS IN RESPECT TO ANY MATTER OF CLAIM OR DISPUTE ARISING OUT OF THIS ADVERTISEMENT AND / OR APPLICATION CAN BE LODGED ONLY IN DELHI COURTS/ TRIBUNALS/ FORUMS AND DELHI COURTS / TRIBUNAL/ FORUMS ONLY SHALL HAVE THE SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE JURISDICTION TO TRY ANY CASE / DISPUTE.
4 PROPOSAL SUBMITTED THROUGH E-MAIL WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED. UNIVERSITY/ DEGREE AWARDING ACADEMIC INSTITUTION DEPARTMENTS (LEVEL I/ LEVEL II/ LEVEL III) AND COLLEGES (LEVEL 0) MUST USE SEPARATE FORMAT OF APPLICATION UPLOADED AT THE ONLINE PORTAL (ONLINEDST.GOV.IN)/ GIVEN IN THE WEBSITE (WWW.FIST-DST.ORG). SUBMISSION OF PROPOSAL OTHER THAN THE PRESCRIBED FORMAT SHALL SUMMARILY BE REJECTED WITHOUT ANY FURTHER PROCESSING AS PER PROGRAM NORMS.

Mandatory Documents to be uploaded with the Online Proposal:

• Endorsement from PI and Summary Sheet for FIST-2019
• Endorsement Letter from the Registrar of the University/Head of the Institute/ Principal of the College
• Department of Science and Technology - Policy on Conflict of Interest
• Terms and Conditions for "FIST" Grant
• Project Implementation Group (PIG)
• Brief Summary of the FIST Support (Not required for Departments/ Colleges seeking first time support)

Please note that incomplete Proposal/ Proposal not in the prescribed Format would summarily be rejected and no correspondence in such cases would be made in this respect. The name of the successful departments shall be displayed in the Website after completion of the evaluation process.