What is SERB – POWER initiative?
Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences and Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan, launched a Scheme called “SERB-POWER (Promoting Opportunities for Women in Exploratory Research)” on October 29, 2020. The initiative is exclusively meant for women scientists on an e-platform.
Highlights
- The scheme has been launched by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB).
- It has been launched to mitigate gender disparity in science and engineering research with in the S&T programs.
- a statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has been contemplating to institute a scheme.
SERB – POWER Scheme
The scheme has two components- SERB-POWER Fellowship and SERB- POWER Research Grants.
SERB-POWER Fellowship
The scheme targets the women researchers in age group of 35-55 years. The scheme provides for a fellowship of Rs 15,000/- per month part from regular income, Research grant of Rs 10 lakh annually and Overhead of Rs 90,000 on annual basis. The duration of the fellowship would be of Three years.
SERB – POWER Research Grants
These POWER Grants seeks to empower women researchers by funding them under two categories. Under Level I category, scale of funding is up to 60 lakhs for three years while under Level II category, scale of funding is up to 30 lakhs for three years. The POWER Grant will be regulated through Science and Engineering Research Board-Core Research Grant (SERB-CRG) guidelines.
Search-cum-Selection Committee
The committee was constituted to help in identifying the POWER Fellowship. Programme Advisory Committee (PAC) mechanism will be used to select the POWER Research Grants. It has been proposed to institute 25 POWER Fellowships annually.