INSPIRE Scholarship for Higher Education is for the students who are pursuing Bachelors or Masters in Basic and Natural Sciences. It is the flagship program of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE) scheme. This is to attract talented and interested students to pursue their education in science-intensive programs. A sum of ₹80000 each year is provided to 10000 students in the age group of 17-22 years. Along with the monetary compensation, mentorship is also provided to every scholar to guide them in their research. Students are expected to participate in a summer research project every year in a recognised research centre of their choice.
Eligibility
The aspiring students must match the following criteria to be eligible for the scholarship:
- Must be pursuing a course in Natural or Basic sciences at bachelors or masters level (mandatory).
- Be in the top 1% of his/her class 12th board examination.
- Be within the top 10000 ranks in their IITJEE or AIPMT examination.
- Pursuing integrated MS courses in IISER, NISER or Department of Atomic Energy Center for Basic Sciences.
- Has won Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahak Yojana (KVPY), National Talent Search Examination (NTSE), Jagdish Bose National Science Talent Search (JBNSTS) or International Science Olympiad (ISO) medalists.
- Must be pursuing bachelors or masters in one of the subjects: Microbiology, Physics, Biochemistry, Chemistry, Oceanic Sciences, Astronomy, Geology, Zoology, Biology, Electronics, Statistics, Botany, Geochemistry, Anthropology, Geophysics, Mathematics, Atmospheric Sciences & Astrophysics.
How to Apply
The scholarship can be applied through both offline and online mode. DST highly recommends using the online mode. For online application,
- Click on the following link to register: http://www.online-inspire.gov.in/
- Login on this link using the email id and password that you had just registered with.
- Click on “Apply for scholarship” in “Scholarship” link.
- Fill out all the necessary fields and upload all the soft copies of the documents listed below.
- Press Submit and send the printout to the following address. The Director, National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies (NISTADS), Dr K S Krishnan Marg, New Delhi – 110012
Documents Required
- Application form with a passport sized photographs. [JPG – 50KB]
- 10th standard mark sheet (for DOB verification). [PDF – 1MB]
- 12th standard mark sheet. [PDF – 1MB]
- Advisory or eligibility note. [PDF – 1MB]
- An endorsement certificate in the given format (click here), and signed by the Principal/Registrar/Director of your institution. [PDF – 1MB]
- Document proof of JEE (Main) / JEE (Advanced) / NTSE / JBNSTS/ KVPY / NEET / International Olympic Medalists rank or achievement. [PDF – 1MB]
INSPIRE Scholarship selection procedure
Since DST receives a large number of applications for this scholarship, it takes about 4 months to process an application. The selection will be based upon performance in the Board exams with a cutoff threshold of top 1%. All selected students will receive an email containing provisional offer letter. In case of not receiving the email, a candidate can check his/her application on the dashboard of the online portal.
Terms and Conditions
- A student after availing the INSPIRE-SHE scholarship cannot avail for any other scholarship concurrently. In case if the student has been found to avail a scholarship from any other sources, the INSPIRE-SHE scholarship will be summarily withdrawn. And the student will be liable to pay back the entire amount provided by DST-INSPIRE thus far.
- In case if the student has availed a scholarship from any other sources, a scholarship surrender certificate has to be provided to avail the DST-INSPIRE scholarship.
- The student should be studying only from the list of institutes identified by the ministry.
- The total family income of the family must not be more than 6 lakhs per annum.
- The scholarship is provided only after the courses have begun and the candidate is regularly attending the classes.
- The scholarship will continue until the end of the course, provided the student’s performance satisfies the minimum criteria.
- The student has to secure a minimum CGPA of 6.0 on a 10 point scale to continue receiving the scholarship. In case of failure or inability to secure the minimum required score, the candidate will not receive the scholarship for that academic year.
- If the student has missed out on the annual/semester university exam, the scholarship will be forfeited for an academic year.
- The scholarship will be released only after the student has results of the respective exams are submitted. The students are expected to submit their results as soon as is announced.
- In case the student has discontinued the course, the scholarship is summarily withdrawn. He/she will be unable to avail the scholarship even if they have joined the course after a year.
- The scholarship will not be continued if the student wishes to take a break after completing his/her bachelor’s degree.
