The Scheme “Fund for Improvement of S&T Infrastructure (FIST)” is intended to provide basic infrastructure and enabling facilities for promoting R&D activities in new and emerging areas and attracting fresh talents in universities & other educational institutions. It is considered as complimentary support for enabling Departments/ Centres/ Schools/ Colleges to pursue research activities more effectively and efficiently.

DST is restructuring the immensely successful FIST programme to orient it towards the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat by creating R&D infrastructure not only for R&D activities in academic organizations but also for use by the start-ups/ manufacturing industries/ MSMEs. Appropriate mechanisms including use of the FIST facilities through multiple shifts have been communicated to the beneficiaries through a public notice to promote optimal utilization of these resources.

The beneficiary organizations need to display a Public Notice exhibiting the FIST Logo to represent the face of the restructured FIST Program. They also need to connect with the I-STEM (Indian - Science Technology and Engineering Facilities Map) portal to display the utility and availability of slots of different facilities in their premises, for sample analysis by researchers outside the host organization.

Nature of Support: Nature of Support: The Scheme will provide optimal infrastructure facilities for post-graduate and higher research, such as, renovation of existing laboratory space (no fresh constructions) and cold room, modernization of laboratories involved in PG and higher research, acquisition of essential equipment, up-gradation of existing facilities, networking & computational facilities including software & databases, scientific & technical books, maintenance & refurbishing of existing and new facilities etc. The facilities provided under the Program are intended to support the efforts of the Department as a whole or a number of faculty members in the Department. Proposal towards individual R&D support are not accepted under this Scheme. The synergy and focus of research may preferably be aligned to National Missions/ priorities.

Duration: The duration of support for each FIST Project is for a period not exceeding 5 years.

Type of Support:Currently, there are four types of support corresponding to four different levels. These are as follows:

• (1) Level – 0: Proposals from active PG Colleges (Govt./ Govt. aided/ Private) (having eligibility as specified for Level-0) shall be considered for a maximum support of up to Rs. 1.50 crores for establishing research facilities for the S & T for 5 years duration.

• (2) Level – 1: Proposals from relatively small but active post-graduate S&T Department from different Universities (having eligibility as specified for Level-1) and degree awarding academic Institutions requiring moderate funding for improving quality of research. The support would be up to Rs 3.0 crores for 5 years duration for augmentation of research facilities to a Department/ School/ Centre

• (3) Level – 2: Proposals from well-established S&T Department from State/ Central Universities and degree awarding academic Institutions (having eligibility as specified for Level-2) with high repute requiring substantial funding (upper limit - Rs.5.0 crores for 5 years duration) for acquiring state-of-the-art equipment & setting up laboratories for conducting internationally competitive research

Eligibility:

For University / Degree awarding Academic Institutions, the support will be considered for the 'Department / School / Center' as a unit. All Science (including Medical & Agriculture) and Engineering Departments/ Centres having strong PG research programs which have existed for at least 3 years or more in universities and other higher educational institutions recognized or regulated by UGC/ AICTE and/or MHRD/ State Education Department based, are eligible seeking support for the 1st time. All other agency based academic University/ Institutes are excluded from the scope of FIST support.

For any subsequent cycle of FIST support following 1st cycle of support at any level, henceforth all such beneficiaries would be considered for repeat cycle of FIST support only after a period of 10 years from the date of sanction of the immediately preceding project

Further eligibility parameters and criteria for considering a proposal for support under FIST Program are based on the type of support and are provided, subsequently.

Criteria for proposals to be considered for support under FIST Program:

Level – 0:

• Funding at this level is up to Rs 1.50 Crore for 5 years duration,
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• College should be among top 150 NIRF ranking (in any category, only for S&T related Departments),
• College should be NAAC (B+)/ NBA accredited,
• College should have existed at least for 3 years
• The PG College should have at least 2 ongoing EMR grants worth Rs 50.0 lakhs in last 5 years.
• Minimum number of students shall be PG Programs (15) & UG Programs (30),
• Average number of Faculty at PG level shall be 4 across Departments with good quality
• Evidence of research in the PG Department (s) of the College,
• In case of Non-Govt., the College should have at least 4 PhD students pursuing their PhD as full time Research Scholar and receiving their fellowships either by virtue of NET/GATE qualification or holder of Institute/any other agency fellowship.

Level – 1:

• At this level funding is up to Rs 3.0 Crores for 5 Years duration for moderate research activities,
•  
• Departments in: i) State Universities; ii) Departments applying for 1st time from Central Universities/ Academic Institutions,
• Departments in Central Universities/Academic Institutions applying for repeat support after completing 1st FIST Project need to be less than 15 years in existence
• Departments from all IITs, IISc, IISERs & AIIMS would not be considered for Level 1 support,
• Department should have existed at least for 3 years,
• Number of core faculty members having Ph D degree should be five (5) or more
• • The Department should have at least 2 ongoing EMR grants worth Rs 100.0 lakhs,
• The Department should have at least 1 faculty with i-10 index of 1 publication in last 5 years,

Performance in last 5 years:

• Publications, Patents etc
•  
• Awards received by the Faculty Members of the Department/ Centre
• Projected Research Plan for next 5 Years,
• In case of Non-Govt. University/ Institute/ College, departments of the University or “College as a whole” should have at least 6 students at the PhD level pursuing their PhD as full time Research Scholar and receiving their fellowships either by virtue of NET/GATE qualification or holder of Institute/any other agency fellowship.

Level – 2:

• At this level funding is up to Rs 5.0 Crores for 5 Years duration,
• Departments in: i) State Universities, ii) Departments in Central Universities / All Academic Institutions (more than 15 years in existence) / IITs, IISc, IISERs & AIIMS,
• Department should have existed for at least for 3 years,
• Number of core faculty members having Ph D degree should be eight (8) or more,
• Well established Department/ Centre and should be internationally competitive,
• The focus of support would be in tune with the National Missions as well as National Priorities in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy, water and start-up India etc.,
• The Department should have at least 3 ongoing EMR grants worth Rs 400.0 lakhs,
• Performance in last 5 years
• Publications in SCI Journals, Patents etc
• Awards received by the Faculty Members of the Department/ Centre
• Projected Research Plan for next 5 years
• No additional Maintenance support. Such Departments need to include/ negotiate comprehensive warranty of the equipment at the time of purchase for a maximum of 5-years period
• In case of Non-Govt. University/ Institute, departments of the University should have at least 10 PhD students pursuing their PhD as full time Research Scholar and receiving their fellowships either by virtue of NET/GATE qualification or holder of Institute/any other agency fellowship

Level – 3:

• Departments in State & Central Universities /All Academic Institutions (including IITs, IISc, IISERs & AIIMSs) that are well established and internationally competitive Department / Centre in research activities,
• Funding is up to Rs 10.0 Crores for 5 Years duration
• The Department should have already received 2 cycles of FIST support at Level ‘2’ and secured at least one ‘Excellent’ and one ‘Very Good’ review grading in those Projects
• The focus of support would be in tune with the National Missions as well as National Priorities in manufacturing, waste processing, clean energy, water and start-up India etc.,
• Minimum Number of permanent faculty members with PhD degree should be ten (10) faculty members,
• At least 20% Faculty Members in the Department/ Centre shall have recognition at National/ International level such as Membership of Academies, Awards and Leadership Roles etc.,
  • Measurement of Department/ Centre’s profile on last 10 years’ Performance:
  • Publications in SCI Journals with citation of each publication
  • Patents (Filed or Granted) and Patents exploited for commercial gain,
  • Extra Mural Research (EMR) Grants received from a) National Agencies, b) International Agencies, c) Industry (on both Collaborative Research & Consultancy),
  • Full-time PhD awarded
  • Recognition of faculty members from a) National and b) International agencies like Academy Membership, Awards etc.
• No additional Maintenance support. Such Departments need to include/ negotiate comprehensive warranty of the equipment at the time of purchase for a maximum of 5-years period
• In case of Non-Govt. University/ Institute, departments of the University should have at least 15 PhD students pursuing their PhD as full time Research Scholar and receiving their fellowships either by virtue of NET/GATE qualification or holder of Institute/any other agency fellowship.

FIST-SATHI ki Baat:

The FIST Programme has been in place since the year 2000 and is spread over 3000 Departments/ PG Colleges across the Nation. The SATHI Scheme was initiated in the year, 2019 and currently, three SATHI Centres have been established. For effective interaction with all stakeholders, SATHI Ki Baat & FIST monthly Virtual Meeting is planned with HoD, R&D Infrastructure DST Delhi.

Every month on third Thursday of the month at 15:00 hrs. The links is given as below:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjkyNDNhMWMtMWJiM...

Agenda: For any general issues/ questions which stakeholders feel the need to be addressed, they can post the questions on 3rd Tuesday of every month at a[dot]bhattacharyya[at]nic[dot]in

Terms & Conditions (FIST)  143.71 KB

PUBLIC NOTICE (Bilingual) - FIST & PURSE  140.79 KB

FIST 2021 Program - Recommended proposals143.4 KB 

FIST 2021 Program - Non recommended proposals393.12 KB 

Result of FIST 2020 Program Proposals Recommended 143.99 KB

Application Formats and necessary forms/document267.75 KB

Result of FIST 2019 Program Proposals Recommended 117.24 KB

• For details on the scheme, please click (http://www.fist-dst.org/index.asp)
• For more information, please contact