Science and Engineering Research Council

The Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC) was established in 1974 and is an apex body through which the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India promotes R&D programmes in newly emerging and challenging areas of science and engineering. SERC is composed of eminent scientists, technologists drawn from various universities/national laboratories and Industry. This Council is assisted by Programme Advisory Committees (PACs) in various disciplines of Science & Engineering

List of Projects sanctioned

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It's Objectives:

• To promote research in newly emerging frontier areas of science and engineering including multidisciplinary fields.
  
• To selectively promote the general research capability in relevant areas of science and engineering taking into account capability of the host institutions.
  
• To encourage young scientists to take up challenging R&D activities.
  
• To give special encouragement to projects from relatively small and less endowed University Departments and Institutions.
  
• To encourage patenting facilities to scientists and technologists in the country for Indian and foreign patents on a sustained basis.

Activities it supports

• Project support to scientists in challenging areas in various disciplines
  
• Unit and core group around outstanding scientists
  
• Training programmes involving young scientists
  
• SERC Student Fellowships
  
• SERC Chairs in key areas of S&T
  
• Setting up of Research support facilities
  
• Organisation of Summer/Winter Schools
  
• Women's scientist scheme

The mandate of research supported by the SERC includes increased and expanded knowledge in basic research, excellence in science & engineering, innovation and promotion of selected areas, encouragement for industrial partnership in projects under engineering and technology, training of manpower for future requirement and encouragement to young scientists and students

SERC has the broad mission of promoting and challenging new areas of science & engineering with focus on basic research in all disciplines. It also encourages involvement of academic and research institutions to undertake research in identified areas. It also acts as a mechanism for inter agency coordination with other S&T agencies for better management of R&D funding through joint/ complimentary funding in major projects. This is so since other S&T agencies fund R&D in their specialised areas such as agriculture (ICAR), health (ICMR), defence (DRDO), space (DoS), atomic energy (DAE), non-conventional energy (MNES) etc.

SERC- Schools

SERC Schools is to encourage Young Scientists to take up challenging research and development activities. Program Advisory Committee is promoting the program in disciplines like Life, Chemical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

For more information and SERC school announcement please visit SERC website www.serc-dst.org

Third SERC School in Neuroscience

Its functions

SERC funds R&D projects in identified challenging areas to scientists in academic, research institutions including medical colleges and universities, national research laboratories, engineering colleges and engineering research institutes, etc.

SERC activities may be classified under the following disciplines:

• Physical Science
  
• Chemical Science
  
• Life Science
  
• Earth & Atmospheric Science
  
• Engineering Science
  
• Mathematical Science
  

SERC, had earlier identified specific areas of research known as the Thrust areas through the mechanism of organising a series of national workshops in most of the above disciplines. More recently, the Programme Advisory Committees of the SERC had deliberated on updating these thrust areas and identifying new challenging areas for support in the 21st century. Few examples of the broad areas identified by the SERC are Molecular Biophysics, habitat fragmentation biology, chronobiology, plant animal relationships, small permanent magnet machines, smart sensors, optical communication, use of hydrogen as fuel, watershed management, high precision manufacturing, design of VLSI circuits, sensors integrated robotics system, synthesis and structure, organometallic and cluster chemistry, physical chemistry based phenomenon like ultra fast reaction dynamics, corrosion etc., quantum optics and basic laser physics, non-linear optics, physics of biological systems, evolution of India crust, study of earthquake processes, climate observation and modeling, severe weather system, stochastic process modeling, combinatorial optimisation, game theory, etc.

These areas are being published as Vision Documents for R&D and are available on request.

SERC funding provides

• Sophisticated equipment, instruments and facilities to academic institutions as part of R&D activities/programmes
  
• Training to brilliant young scientists through fellowships, workshops, summer/ winter schools in few selected areas and students fellowships.

The Universities/ Institutions, located in remote places, can send specific request on Orientation on SERC & DST funding to enable the DST staff members to visit the concerned institutions.

General Update

In order to facilitate the Scientists and Technologists, the Department announces the following:

• The project proposals for consideration under the SERC Scheme can now be submitted anytime throughout the year.
  
• The Investigators may submit only 20 copies of the proposal printed on both the sides of A4 size paper along with the electronic copy of the proposal on a 1.44 MB floppy/CD, preferably in MS Word.

For more details/ formats and guidelines on the SERC and related programmes, please visit our website www.serc-dst.org

Contact

For more information on SERC :

Dr B Hari Gopal
Adviser & Head
Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC)
Department of Science & Technology
Technology Bhawan
New Mehrauli Road
New Delhi-110 016.
Telephone:011-26590370
Email: bghari at nic dot in