India Research Grants: ICMR, ANRF, DST and DBT (2026)

Researchers searching for India research grants in 2026 meet two main funders and a handful of fellowship schemes. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) funds health and biomedical work, and the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), which took over the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), funds science and engineering. The Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) run fellowships on top. This guide sets out what each funder offers, who can apply, what was open when we checked on 10 October 2026, and which figures we could not confirm.

Editverse is independent. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, ICMR, ANRF, SERB, DST, DBT or any Indian institution. Calls change from year to year, so treat this page as a map and the current call document as the authority.

In Simple Words

If you work on a health question, look at ICMR first. Its extramural grants run up to 2 crore rupees for the small scheme and 2 to 8 crore for the intermediate scheme, and you apply through the ICMR e-PMS portal. If you work in science or engineering, look at ANRF, where the early-career route is the Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant. Nearly every scheme needs a regular post at a recognised Indian institution, and ICMR needs at least one co-investigator from your own institute. Several calls closed in March 2026, so check what is open before you write.

How India Research Grants Are Organised in 2026

Government of India research money reaches individual researchers through a few channels. ICMR is the health funder and states that its extramural arm funds Indian scientists working outside ICMR institutes. ANRF is the central funder for science and engineering. DST and DBT run named fellowships.

The biggest recent change is the move from SERB to ANRF. A PIB release of 9 August 2023 said the new Act would repeal the Science and Engineering Research Board. A PIB release of 11 December 2024 said the ANRF Act was brought into force on 5 February 2024, and a PIB release of 1 April 2026 now refers to ANRF (erstwhile SERB). The ANRF portal at anrfonline.in lists current ANRF programmes next to a separate group of erstwhile SERB schemes, and existing SERB portal users log in with the same credentials.

Funder	Covers	Portal	Early-career route
ICMR	Health and biomedical research	ICMR e-PMS	Small extramural grant (ANVESHAN), postdoctoral fellowship
ANRF (formerly SERB)	Science, engineering, interdisciplinary research	anrfonline.in	Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant, N-PDF
DST	DST fellowships such as INSPIRE Faculty	Per scheme	INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship
DBT	Biotechnology fellowships and the India Alliance with Wellcome	Per scheme	Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship, India Alliance fellowships

ICMR Extramural Grants for India Research Grants in Health

ICMR publishes one table of extramural schemes on its extramural grants page, which showed a page update of 12 August 2026. Eligibility on that page reads only Indian scientists working outside ICMR institutes, so the real rules sit in the call documents and in ICMR’s extramural guidelines.

Scheme	Ceiling	Duration
Small Extramural Grants (ANVESHAN)	Up to 2 crore rupees per project	Maximum 3 years, plus up to 6 months of preparation at no added cost
Intermediate Extramural Grants (NISCHAYAK ANVESHAN)	2 to 8 crore rupees	Maximum 4 years, plus up to 6 months of preparation
First in World Challenge (FIWC)	Up to 8 crore rupees by stage	Up to 4 years by stage
Centre for Advanced Research (CAR)	15 crore rupees on the schemes table, 8 crore to under 15 crore in the 2026 call	Up to 5 years
Clinical Care Excellence Initiative	Maximum 8 crore rupees	4 years

What Was Open on 8 October 2026

ICMR’s call for proposals page, updated 8 October 2026, listed the following extramural items as open. No call for ANVESHAN or NISCHAYAK ANVESHAN was listed.

First in World Challenge. The call document was released on 1 October 2026, and the last date is 30 November 2026 at 5.30 pm. It has three types. Type A is proof of concept, up to 1 crore rupees over 2 years. Type B is prototype, up to 4 crore over 3 years. Type C is final product, up to 8 crore over 4 years. Only first-in-the-world proposals qualify, and incremental work is excluded.
Special CAR calls. Two calls, one on priority medical devices and diagnostics and one on assistive technology under NIRMAN-AT, close on 15 November 2026 at 5 pm.
DHR human resource development for the North-East. The listed deadline is 30 November 2026 at 5 pm.

The two main researcher-initiated schemes both ran earlier in the year. The small grant call on ICMR’s call document opened on 29 December 2025 and closed on 16 March 2026, with a budget range of 10 lakh rupees to under 2 crore. The intermediate call closed on 20 March 2026, and ICMR’s results list shows 157 regular proposals and 14 follow-on proposals selected. The list does not give the number received. Both calls were released in December, and the January 2025 intermediate call suggests a yearly cycle, but that is our inference and not an ICMR statement.

The Centre for Advanced Research call, on ICMR’s CAR page, took concept notes until 31 August 2026 and asks for full proposals from shortlisted teams by 30 November 2026. It expects a principal investigator h-index of at least 20 or multiple granted patents, so it does not suit early-career applicants.

Who Can Apply and What Trips Applicants

The 2026 small grant call and the extramural guidelines agree on the main rules.

The principal investigator needs regular employment at an eligible Indian institution. Contractual or temporary faculty can apply only if the head of the institute takes responsibility, a regular employee of the institute is a co-investigator and the PI draws no salary from the grant.
ICMR scientists and institutes cannot apply. They can join as co-investigators without funds.
At least one co-investigator must come from the PI’s own institute.
Private institutions and NGOs need a DSIR certificate. Public institutions and those with valid UGC, AICTE or NMC approval are exempt.
A PI should not normally hold more than five ICMR-funded projects at once, and the 2026 small grant call adds a ceiling of Rs 25 crore on the combined value of a PI’s ongoing ICMR grants.
Overheads are capped at 3% of the recurring budget, with none on equipment or travel.
Proposals need Institutional Ethics Committee clearance with a DHR registration number.
The annual report and statement of expenditure are due three months before each project year ends and no later than one month after it, the provisional utilisation certificate is due nine months from the start date, and missing the one-month limit can lead to termination. A final report is due within three months of completion, and the stated penalty is a three-year blacklist.

One conflict is worth knowing. The call document and the extramural page give a three-year maximum for the small grant, while the undated guidelines describe up to four years including six-month preparatory and post-project periods. Use the call document for the current round.

ICMR Fellowships

ICMR’s postdoctoral fellowship page is open to Indian nationals within three years of PhD award, with an upper age of 32 that can be relaxed for several categories. The page shows a stipend of Rs 65,000 per month from 31 July 2020 and a contingency of Rs 3 lakh a year. Both are old figures, and the last dated call on the page was in February 2023, so confirm current terms before you rely on them. The DHR human resource development scheme has run start-up grants for faculty within five years of a biomedical PhD. The most recent call we could confirm closed on 30 January 2025, so check the current terms with DHR.

ANRF and the Former SERB Schemes Under India Research Grants

The ANRF portal lists current ANRF programmes and a separate group of erstwhile SERB schemes. The ANRF compendium 2026 gives the programme overview. On 10 October 2026 the portal’s news banner listed four open calls, namely Ramanujan Fellowship nominations (to 31 December 2026), the PM Professorship (to 15 October), the Inclusivity Research Grant (1 October to 3 November) and Impact Centres of Excellence (to 30 October). It showed no open call for the Core Research Grant, Advanced Research Grant, N-PDF or PM ECRG.

Scheme	Who it targets	Amount and duration
Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant	Researchers up to age 42, with relaxations, in a regular academic or research post. Applicants should have joined the institution on or after 1 February 2023, relaxed once for the current call. One-time grant.	Up to Rs 60 lakh plus overheads, for 3 years, capped at 700 grants a year
Core Research Grant	Scientists in regular posts at recognised institutions. Foreign nationals, including OCI and NRI applicants, can apply under special guidelines.	No upper or lower limit, average about Rs 35 lakh, normally 3 years
Advanced Research Grant	Regular post and PhD, with service remaining equal to the project plus one year	Up to Rs 5 crore, up to 5 years released in phases
National Post Doctoral Fellowship	Indian citizens, PhD within 5 years of viva, at least two papers, up to age 35 with relaxations	Rs 80,000 per month plus HRA, Rs 2 lakh a year research grant, 2 years
Ramanujan Fellowship	Indian or Indian-origin scientists abroad, under 40, who are returning	Rs 1,35,000 per month, Rs 7 lakh a year research grant, 5 years

Treat the older SERB pages with care. The SRG instructions page still shows 30 lakh rupees over two years, while the serb.gov.in grants page says the Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant subsumes the Start-up Research Grant. The Advanced Research Grant allows up to two projects at a time. We could not confirm that SERB-POWER is still active, and the 2026 compendium does not list it.

Call timing is the main gap. The ANRF portal lists Ramanujan nominations from 1 January to 31 December 2026, and for the Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant the page says the call will be notified on the website. Check the serb.gov.in grants page and your portal dashboard rather than any date we could quote.

DST and DBT Fellowships Within India Research Grants

The INSPIRE Faculty Fellowship is described in a PIB release of 23 July 2026. It pays Rs 1,25,000 a month with a research grant of Rs 35 lakh over five years, for postdoctoral researchers generally aged 27 to 32. The 2025 guidelines give the same pay with an annual increment of Rs 2,000. The last call we could confirm ran from 15 August to 14 September 2025, per a copy of the DST notice, and we could not confirm a 2026 call.

The DBT and Wellcome India Alliance is still running. A PIB explainer of 9 October 2025 reports Cabinet approval of Phase III at Rs 1,500 crore (DBT Rs 1,000 crore, Wellcome Rs 500 crore) for 2025 to 2026 through 2030 to 2031, with a Collaborative Grants Programme and a Research Management Programme. The India Alliance site shows its 2026 Round 1 windows, all now closed. Early career and intermediate fellowships ran from 2 February to 23 March 2026, the research management programme to 10 April, and the collaborative grants to 15 and 18 May. It shows no Round 2 dates.

The DBT Ramalingaswami Re-entry Fellowship is open to Indian nationals working abroad under age 45 in the life sciences, with up to 75 fellows a year. DBT’s page shows neither a current amount nor an open call, so confirm both on the portal. DBT’s BioCARe programme supports women scientists up to age 55, and five calls had been announced as of the page we read.

Which Route Fits Your Career Stage in India Research Grants

Your situation	Routes to check first	Main constraint
PhD student or recent graduate in health	ICMR postdoctoral fellowship, DHR schemes	Indian nationals only for the ICMR fellowship, and no current call listed
Postdoc in science or engineering	ANRF N-PDF, INSPIRE Faculty	Within five years of the PhD for N-PDF, and age limits
New faculty in science or engineering	Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant	One-time grant, joining-date rule, call timing
New faculty in health research	ICMR small grant (ANVESHAN)	Regular post, a co-investigator from your own institute, closed until the next cycle
Established investigator	ICMR intermediate grant, ANRF Core Research Grant or Advanced Research Grant	Project count limits
Indian researcher abroad	Ramanujan, DBT Ramalingaswami, India Alliance	Return to India required
Translational or device team	ICMR First in World Challenge, special CAR calls	First-in-the-world test, DSIR registration for private bodies

What Success Rates Tell You About India Research Grants

We found no official ratio of applications received to awards for any ICMR, ANRF, DST or DBT scheme named here. The numbers that exist count awards, not applications. ICMR selected 157 regular and 14 follow-on proposals in the 2026 intermediate round. ICMR’s 2023 to 2024 annual report states that 725 new grants were initiated across the small, intermediate and CAR programmes and that 896.18 crore rupees was allocated in extramural grants. DST’s INSPIRE Faculty releases list fellows supported each year. The Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant is capped at 700 grants a year, which is a cap and not an outcome.

Without a published success rate, plan as if competition is high and judge a scheme by how well your project matches its stated purpose. A first-in-the-world call, for example, rejects incremental work outright.

Preparing a Proposal for India Research Grants

The Indian funders ask for the same core pieces as Western funders, and they add institutional conditions. Our guides on grant writing and the NIH proposal cover the structure. These steps adapt it for Indian calls.

Choose the scheme before you write. The guidelines give no process for converting a small grant proposal into an intermediate one, and ICMR requires a declaration that the proposal has not been submitted to any other funder.
Write a one-paragraph statement of the health or national problem and who will use the result.
Build a budget justification that respects ICMR’s 3% overhead cap and the scheme’s travel and contingency limits.
Show feasibility with preliminary studies and a team whose roles match the work, as our research team guide describes.
Prepare the statistical analysis plan and participant protection sections early, because ICMR needs ethics clearance with a DHR registration number.
Fix the research timeline around the reporting calendar, because ICMR expects annual reports before each project year ends and no later than a month after it.
Plan how you will credit the funder, using our funding acknowledgment guide.

Pre-Submission Checklist for India Research Grants

Confirm the call is open on the portal, and note the time of closing in IST.
Check that your post is regular, and that your institute holds any DSIR certificate the scheme needs.
Name a co-investigator from your own institute where the scheme requires one.
Count your ongoing ICMR or ANRF projects against the limits.
Save a dated copy of the call document you wrote against.
Check that overheads and cost categories match the scheme.
Secure ethics committee clearance, or a dated plan for it.
Ask your institute for its internal deadline and endorsement letter.

Frequently Asked Questions About India Research Grants

Is SERB still a funder?

SERB was repealed when the ANRF Act came into force on 5 February 2024, and its schemes now sit under ANRF, which still lists some of them as erstwhile SERB schemes. The portal is anrfonline.in.

Where do I apply for ICMR grants?

Through the ICMR e-PMS portal, which each call document names. You register, get your profile verified and then submit the proposal.

Can contract faculty apply to ICMR?

Only through the conditional route in the small grant call. The head of the institute must take responsibility, a regular employee must be a co-investigator and the PI cannot draw salary from the grant.

What is the ICMR overhead rate?

The extramural guidelines cap overheads at 3% of the recurring budget, and they allow none on equipment or travel.

Is a call open right now?

On 8 October 2026 ICMR listed the First in World Challenge, two special CAR calls and a North-East human resource scheme. The small and intermediate grant calls had closed in March. The ANRF portal listed four open calls on 10 October 2026, including Ramanujan nominations and the Inclusivity Research Grant, and none for the Core Research Grant or Advanced Research Grant.

Can Editverse guarantee funding?

No honest service can. Awards rest with reviewers and funders. We can edit and structure your proposal so that it answers the published criteria.

Free Research Tools from Editverse

GraphPro: build publication-ready charts, 25 types, with built-in t-test, ANOVA, correlation, and chi-square p-values. Free, no signup.
StatPro: free statistical calculators and a test-selector tool covering group comparisons, categorical outcomes, time-to-event analysis, and diagnostic accuracy.
Flowchart Pro: generate PRISMA 2020, PRISMA-ScR, CONSORT, STROBE, STARD, MOOSE, and ARRIVE flow diagrams directly in your browser.

Professional Support for India Research Grants Applications

Funded proposals answer a specific call document, line by line. Editverse grant services start from the call you send us. The packages below were built around NIH, NSF and EU Horizon criteria, so for an ICMR or ANRF call you send the guidelines and we audit or write against the criteria and weights they state.

Editing and Review

$1,190

Audit of a complete draft against the criteria of your target funder, narrative strengthening and a compliance check. One revision round, 7 to 10 business days.

View package →

Resubmission Support

$1,690

Analysis of reviewer feedback, a point-by-point response strategy and targeted rewrites. Two revision rounds, 2 to 3 weeks.

View package →

Full Development

Typically from $3,500

End-to-end proposal writing by a published researcher, including a statistical analysis plan and budget justification narrative. Two revision rounds, 2 to 4 weeks.

View package →

For anything the packages do not cover, read about our grant proposal development services or request a free quote and tell us the scheme and your deadline. Prices shown are current catalog prices and scope is confirmed before work begins.

Conclusion on India Research Grants

India Research Grants run through ICMR for health and ANRF for science and engineering, with DST and DBT fellowships on top. ICMR’s open calls on 8 October 2026 were the First in World Challenge and two special CAR calls, while the small and intermediate grants had closed in March. The ANRF portal listed four open calls on 10 October 2026, so check it for anything newer.

Before you draft, pick the scheme, confirm that your post and institute qualify, count your current projects and read the overhead and reporting rules. Then write for a reviewer who needs to see a clear problem, a feasible plan and a team that can deliver. Funders in other regions follow different rules, and our guides to Saudi Arabia research grants, UAE research grants, Singapore research grants and Malaysia research grants cover them, and our guide to international research grants covers the ERC, UKRI, Wellcome, NHMRC and CIHR.

Sources

Official pages read on 10 October 2026. Grant terms change between cycles, so always confirm against the current call.