Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE)

Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) is a program supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), USA, and promotes international activities across all NSF-supported disciplines. PIRE seeks to catalyze a higher level of international engagement in the U.S. science and engineering community which is essential to addressing critical science and engineering problems. With this background, in 2014, the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a Statutory Body under the administrative control of Department of Science & Technology (DST), Govt. of India, entered into a formal understanding with NSF to partner for the PIRE program. The primary goal of PIRE is to support high quality projects in which advances in research and education could not occur without international collaboration. In the global context, U.S. researchers and educators must be able to operate effectively in teams with partners from different nations and cultural backgrounds. PIRE promotes excellence in science and engineering through international collaboration and facilitates development of a diverse, globally-engaged science and engineering workforce.

Subsequent to the NSF-SERB joint review of the proposals received under the 2014 call; “GROWTH - Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen”, an international collaborative network of astronomers and telescopes dedicated to the study of short lived cosmic transients was selected for award. The Lead PI of this project is Dr. G. C. Anupama, Professor, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, Karnataka and Dr. A.N. Ramaprakash, Professor, Inter- University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune is the Co-PI. GROWTH is poised to discover many fast transients with the advent of the next generation of wide-field synoptic imaging with the Zwicky Transient Facility (2017) and Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (2022). The timely characterization provided by GROWTH will be vital to realising the scientific value provided by these discoveries. The GROWTH network will provide students and postdocs with an excellent environment for collaboration with international partners as well as for acquiring valuable skills in observational astronomy and data science.

The fellowship amount will be US $24,000 per annum. The fellowship will be offered for a period of 4 years. In exceptional cases, the fellowship can be extended for one more year. In addition, one time Contingency/Preparatory allowance of Rs. 60,000/- and return Airfare (Economy) will be given to every fellow.

More information about the program can be accessed at www.nsf.gov