Additional Recommendation: This role has been specifically created for the applicant to provide a letter of recommendation in addition to the letter provided by the Fellowship Supervisor; therefore, this individual cannot be your Fellowship supervisor. They would typically be an established researcher who has known you for a significant period of time and can provide a detailed letter of recommendation on your abilities. They may be your thesis guide or current supervisor. In some cases, the External Sponsor and the person providing additional recommendation may be the same individual. A letter of recommendation from this role is mandatory for the preliminary and the full application.

Collaborator(s): Scientific/medical/academic colleagues associated with a research proposal and named in the body of the application. Typically these are individuals who will supply reagents, assist in specific protocols, provide resource services etc. They should be able to provide signed consent letters detailing the extent of their participation towards your research program, at the full application stage.

Mentor: In many instances, an applicant will improve the quality of their application and subsequent work by identifying a mentor. This may be a senior academic/clinician scientist/public health researcher in their host institution or another institution in India or abroad.

A good mentor should be an established researcher who is in a position to provide intellectual inputs to facilitate various aspects of the application process like reviewing draft applications, suggesting experimental approaches and helping candidates to prepare for interview. He/she should also be willing to extend their support, knowledge, and guidance during the tenure of the Fellowship.

Regardless of your previous applications to the India Alliance, all applicants have to make a preliminary application to every competition.

If you are not short-listed at the preliminary application stage, you may apply to the same scheme, subject to meeting the eligibility criteria for the scheme.

Resubmission after consideration of a Full application is not permitted in any scheme. If the Full application has been reviewed by the India Alliance’s Selection Committee, and it was unsuccessful at eitherthe short-listing or interview stage, the applicant may not re-apply to the same scheme. This implies that applicants would have only one opportunity to compete per scheme, once they are into the full application stage. Therefore, it is very important for applicants to carefully consider the timing of their application.

Your preliminary application will normally be assessed within one month of the submission deadline. If successful, you will be invited to submit a full application.

Your full application will be peer reviewed and considered by the appropriate Selection Committee and, if successful, you will be short-listed for interview.

Applicants are not permitted to apply to multiple Fellowship schemes within the India Alliance in parallel. Only one application to one scheme will be entertained, at a time.

You should give careful thought to your choice of Fellowship Supervisor and External Sponsor.These individuals will typically possess strong track records in research and mentorship.

The proposed research should fall within the India Alliance’s remit which is “to support biomedical research that is relevant to human and animal welfare”.

The Fellowship project would typically be a confluence of number of considerations: the main research question you wish to answer; your current skill set and what you may need to successfully answer the proposed question; and, the intellectual and resource contributions that your supervisors and Host Institution environment can make. With the assistance of your Supervisors, you should drive the identification of a research question and the development of the proposal.

Reviewers typically assess:
  •  your track record
  •  the importance of the research question
  •  your choice of appropriate supervisors
  •  the feasibility of the approach

• your vision of how the fellowship will contribute to your career development

The Fellowship encourages mobility; applicants are advised to give serious thought to enlisting an External Sponsor.

Preliminary Application Launch: 1 May 2015

Preliminary application deadline: 15 June 2015

Invited full application deadline: September 2015

Selection Committee short-listing: January 2016

Interviews for short-listed candidates: February 2016

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