Empowerment and Equity Opportunities for Excellence in Science

Objective

The Empowerment and Equity Opportunities for Excellence in Science (EMEQ) scheme is aimed at providing research support to researchers belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in undertaking research in frontier areas of science and engineering.

Eligibility

• The applicant should be an Indian National.
• Should be an active researcher belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe category working on regular basis in an academic institutions/national lab or any other recognized R&D institutions in the field of Science and Engineering.
• The applicant should hold Ph.D. degree in Science or Engineering or M.D. / M.S. / M.D.S. / M.V.Sc. degree
• The applicant should have at least four years of service remaining before superannuation as on the date of submission of the proposal.
• Researchers/Scientists who have ongoing project under EMEQ scheme as on the date of submission of the proposal are not eligible to apply.
• Co-Investigators are not allowed in the scheme.

Nature Of Support

• Funding is provided up to a maximum of Rs. 50.0 lakh (excluding overhead charges).
• The research grant will cover equipment, manpower, consumables, travel and contingency. Overheads will be provided as per prevailing norms of SERB.
• Duration of the project shall be for a maximum of three years.

Mode & Selection of Application

• An applicant is eligible to apply only one proposal during a call.
• Any proposal technically rejected should not be resubmitted without any substantial revision to any schemes or programs of the SERB.
• Not more than one project is allowed at any given time. However, projects under the programs EMEQ, HRHR, IRRD and special calls are exempted from this category. The PI is encouraged to apply for another project six months prior to the completion of the project.
• The Call for applications will be notified through the website www.serbonline.in and www.serb.gov.in. The application form along with a proper research proposal highlighting the research work to be undertaken should be submitted online through the website www.serbonline.in.
• The selection will be based on the recommendations of Program Advisory Committee (PAC) constituted by the Board. If required, the applicants maybe called for discussion/ presentation.

Plagiarism

Proposals submitted need to be original and plagiarism in any form will not be acceptable. All submitted proposals would be subjected to a third-party similarity check and proposals are liable to be rejected if found plagiarised. Any text taken verbatim from other source needs to be identified using quotation marks and proper reference. Applicants are requested to pre-check their proposals for plagiarism before uploading to avoid any serious repercussions at a later stage.

Scientific Social Responsibility

SERB has adopted Scientific Social Responsibility (SSR) Policy to imbibe a culture of social commitment among SERB Grantees. The policy intends to effectively utilize scientific infrastructure and expertise of SERB grantees to benefit other S&T stakeholders especially the less-endowed researchers and the society. SERB Grantees need to undertake some SSR activities during their project period. SSR activities need to be chosen during submission process. Depending on the activities chosen additional budget would be provided under separate head to carry out the chosen activities.

Mode of Application and Selection

• The call for applications will be made once a year and will be notified through the websites www.serbonline.in and www.serb.gov.in. The project proposal should be prepared according to the guidelines and submitted online through the website www.serbonline.in
• The selection will be based on the recommendations of a Task Force Committee that will be constituted by the Board. If desired by the Committee, the applicants may be called for personal discussion.

How to Apply Online:

For online submission of the application the following points may be noted:

• Applicants should first register in SERB online portal, www.serbonline.in click here to register
• After log-in, applicants are required to fill all the mandatory fields in Profile Detail section under User Profile, which includes Bio data, photo, Institute Address, etc.
• Some of the details of proposal like Project Title (max 500 characters), Project summary (max 3000 characters), Keywords (max 6), Objectives of project (max 1500 characters), Expected output and outcome of the proposal (max 1500 characters), Budget (Manpower, Consumables, Travel, Equipment, Contingency, Overheads ) have to be entered at the time of proposal submission.
• Other relevant information of the proposal has to be uploaded as a single PDF file, not more than 10 MB, as technical document (TD)

Documents Required (in PDF format)

For online submission of the application the following points may be noted:

• Biodata (under user profile section)
• Certificate from Principal Investigator
• Endorsement Letter from the Head of Institution
• Category Certificate