Frequently Asked Questions.

Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) is a research Academy created by an Act of Indian Parliament to be an Institute of National Importance. It functions across 37 National Laboratories and 6 centers of Council and Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) offering postgraduate and doctoral degree. AcSIR has been established with an aim of substantially increasing the number of researchers in integrative and Interdisciplinary areas of Science and Engineering

AcSIR has signed a MoU with CSIR. According to the Act, the Academy will have full/structured/monitored access to the use and engagement of the infrastructure, facilities, scientific manpower and other resources of CSIR Laboratories for teaching and research purposes. There are around >2400 Scientists of CSIR who are recognized as Faculty members of AcSIR.

All 37 National Laboratories and six Centers of CSIR are associated with AcSIR. Please refer the link: CSIR Labs participating in AcSIR programs

AcSIR does not necessarily need accreditation for offering degrees. It may please be noted that AcSIR has been established, by the Indian Parliament, as an Institution of National Importance by the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) Act, 2011 and duly notified in the Gazette of India in February, 2012, thereby allowing AcSIR to award degrees on its own.

The Academic Programs in AcSIR are quite vibrant and full of knowledge. A comprehensive list of all Programs are available at http://acsir.res.in/programmes/

AcSIR and CSIR Labs announce and advertise in National Dailies and on the Web about its admission Plans twice in a year for January and August sessions. Eligible candidates possessing the minimum educational qualifications as prescribed are called for test and/ or interview by the selection committees of the respective laboratories of CSIR. The criteria and procedure of admission in different laboratories are announced well in advance for every session.

Details are available at http://acsir.res.in/programmes/.

While Academy intends to maintain high standard, it is also sensitive about such talented students who may not always do well in formal examination. Therefore, AcSIR do not usually mandate a cut-off mark and depend on its individual CSIR Labs to select the best and brightest from the available pool.

Project Assistants (PA) working at any CSIR lab can be selected for the PhD program in AcSIR on the basis of a rigorous screening procedure and only a few are selected. Interested PAs can apply for PhD program at AcSIR during the regular call for admissions (1) September-October of previous year for January sessions; (2) April-May of same year for August session.

Such candidates can apply only after completing minimum one year at the respective CSIR-Lab and has letter of recommendation from the Advisor mentioning that ‘ The supervisor will take active interest in finding an alternate source of funding in case of discontinuation/termination of the project from which the Project Assistant is being funded at the time of enrollment for Ph.D’. (Refer: AcSIR Ordinances).

AcSIR rules doesn’t prevent students earning degrees by such mode of education for applying to PhD Programs .

Yes, there are a few opportunities. Kindly visit http://acsir.res.in/programmes/

No such provision is there till date.

Yes, AcSIR offers Summer Training Program (AcSIR-Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Summer Training Program) of 2 month duration to limited number of students currently pursuing their Graduation/Post Graduation Degree. The program is funded by AcSIR through its AcSIR-Kalam Fellowship. Click here for details.

Candidates with following credentials are eligible to apply for participation in the program:

• 1^st year of 2-year M.Sc program: minimum first-class at B.Sc level or equivalent
• 3^rd or 4^th year of a 5-year Integrated M.Sc program or equivalent: GPA 6.0 or 60% (upto IV Sem)
• 1^st year of 2-year M.E/M.Tech program or equivalent: GPA 8.0 or 80% OR GPA 7.0 or 70% for CFTIs at B.E/B.Tech level or GATE Score ≥600 or NET (Engineering) Rank from 1 to 100
• 3^rd year of B.E/ B.Tech program or equivalent: GPA 8.0 or 80% OR GPA 7.0 or 70% for CFTIs (upto IV Sem)
• 3^rd or 4^th year of Integrated M.E/M.Tech program or equivalent: GPA 8.0 or 80% OR GPA 7.0 or 70% for CFTIs (upto IV Sem) or GATE Score ≥600 or NET (Engineering) Rank from 1 to 100 

General timeline for AcSIR-APJ Abdul Kalam Summer Training Program

Sl. No.                   Activity                                                                            Timeline

1.                        Release of Advertisement                                                   2nd Friday of November
2.                        Application Start Date                                                         3rd Friday of November
3.                        Application Closing Date                                                    31st December
4.                        Segregation and communication                                      1st Friday of January
   to respective Committees
5.                        Shortlisting to be completed by and                                4th Friday of January
   and communication to AcSIR office
6.                        Communication to Shortlisted                                         1st Friday of February
   Candidates centrally by AcSIR
7.                        Selection Interview at a                                                      1st Friday of March
   common location
8.                        Result Declaration and Communication to                    15th March
   students individually by AcSIR office
9.                        Program Duration (2 Months)                                          Anytime between May and August

Paid internship for 20 numbers are usually offered.

Interdisciplinary research is a mode of research by teams or individuals that integrates information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and/or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge to advance fundamental understanding or to solve problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice. AcSIR encourages barrier free transition from one background discipline to acquire higher degree in another discipline. There are no such specific conditions for the same.

AcSIR allows only regular mode of enrollment in PhD program. However,  enrolled students may be allowed to continue as a part time candidate after completion of all academic course work credit requirements, lab work, conduct of all DAC meetings,  submission of synopsis and only thesis writing is pending.

Industry sponsored candidates are admitted for the programs, who have to fulfill minimum requirements for the program.

AcSIR offers Industries sponsored M.Tech and Ph.D (sciences/Engineering) programs. An interested candidate would need to obtain a priori consent from a CSIR scientist to be a prospective Guide. In addition, the employing organization would be required to endorse academic leave and financial support during the program. Click here for more details. 

Industry Sponsored Candidates can be admitted to both Masters and Doctoral programs.

There is no bar on age for Industry/Project Sponsored Candidates.

Foreign Nationals can only register as regular full time scholars, however those with degree from Indian Universities will be treated at par with Indian nationals for admission processes. Others with foreign degrees must meet the minimum educational requirements equivalent to Indian nationals in the relevant discipline.

Yes, AcSIR will issue enrollment letter shortly upon your selection at AcSIR.

AcSIR follows Annual Cohort based tuition fee for all programs.

Tuition fee needs to be paid till semester during which the Thesis is submitted for Ph.D Program and till last semester for other programs.

AcSIR fees needs to be paid through AcSIR-SBI Collect Portal. Click here to visit the portal. Fee receipt is generated from the AcSIR-SBI Collect Portal itself.

DAC is the abbreviation of Doctoral Advisory Committee. DAC is constituted for each student enrolled for Ph.D Program. It is constituted to provide advice, support and mentorship to the student during the course of their research work. They are meant for monitoring progress and initiating dialogue and discussion that will aid the student in achieving his or her research goals quickly and meaningfully. The committee also recommends when the thesis is ready to be submitted.

DAC can be constituted immediately after allotment of supervisor(s). The proposed committee will need approval from the Director, of the Laboratory and the Associate Dean/Dean of relevant faculty of study. Supervisor(s) are advised to take prior consent from the proposed members. The DAC consists of thesis supervisor, Co-supervisor (if any), two members from the same research area as recommended by the supervisor(s) and one member nominated by the Director of the institute from different field of research.

Comprehensive examination is a procedure through which the student at AcSIR gets formally registered for the academic program. Usually it is conducted after 1st DAC meeting and before 2nd DAC meeting. The student has to acquire minimum credits from academic coursework for the program and ensure that their are no tuition fee dues are pending against his/her name before taking the examination.

Comprehensive examination is conducted in presence of supervisor, Co-supervisor (if any), all the three DAC members and the Director/Director’s nominee.

You can submit it to the AcSIR Coordinator of your research institute with copy to your Advisor(s).

Preferably, the DAC should meet twice a year. However, in compelling circumstances, a minimum of two months’ gap between two consecutive DAC meetings has to be mandatorily maintained. 

You would have to do it in consultation with your Advisor(s); any such modification needs to be approved by the Dean of respective faculty and informed to AcSIR Office.

No, you cannot skip any DAC meeting.

A minimum of four DAC meetings have to be conducted; based on the need more such meeting may be arranged as per advice of DAC members.

No you can not. Please refer to point of E(2) of FAQ.

The complete schedule with the objectives for conducting DAC meeting is as under:

DAC No.	Objective of DAC	Time frame
I	Discussion on the topic of research to be pursued, questions to be addressed etc.	Any time before the end of the Third Semester
II	Finalization of Ph.D proposal	During or within 6 months of the comprehensive exam
III	Monitoring the progress of the student	Before the end of 6th Semester
IV	Ph.D colloquium (open seminar)	Two weeks before submission of thesis

Please refer student handbook available at http://acsir.res.in/downloads, under “AcSIR Student handbook, Page no. 5

Both Open colloquium and Viva-Voce examination should be conducted in an open forum.

You would have to do it in consultation with your Advisor(s); any such modification needs to be approved by Dean of respective faculty and informed to AcSIR Office.

A Sponsored candidate, like regular students, will be allowed to take Comprehensive Examination only after completing all academic coursework as a residential student. The project proposal, review article and Societal Program can be completed before Open Colloquium prior to submission of thesis.

The Comprehensive Board of a student will be approved by the Director of the Laboratory and subsequently informed to the Dean of the concerned faculty and the AcSIR Offices for updating records.

Detailed courses can be found at http://acsir.res.in/courses/

Yes, students can avail credits from other National and International institutions. AcSIR facilitates transfer of credits through an Evaluation process. The guidelines are provided at http://acsir.res.in/downloads/.

Yes, you are encouraged to, please send an email to AcSIR at: info+publication@acsir.res.in, with details of references (Title, Author Name, Journal Name, Year of Publication, Page) along with PDF copy of your publication

Yes it is mandatory to have at least one publication in a peer reviewed SCI journal with AcSIR affiliation before submission of thesis.

Any student and faculty of AcSIR publishing paper from the AcSIR thesis
research work and thesis content must mandatorily stipulate their affiliation with Academy of Scientific
and Innovative Research (AcSIR) in the Title page of the paper under Author Lines (in addition to their
affiliation with the CSIR institute). This affiliation must be in proper form as per example illustrated
below:
Jyoti Mukherjee(1,2), Anurag Sharma(1) and Balram Mishra(1,2)
(1)CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Dr. KS Krishnan Marg, New Delhi-110012, India
(2)Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad- 201002, India
Note: In this case Jyoti Mukherjee is an AcSIR Student working at CSIR-NPL and Balram Mishra is her supervisor and a faculty of AcSIR working at CSIR-NPL. Anurag Sharma is a scientist/student but not a faculty/student of AcSIR.

AcSIR encourages such arrangements, but it varies from one CSIR Lab to other depending on the administrative policies of the concerned Research Institute.

You have to do the following steps:

1. Inform the AcSIR Coordinator of your lab.
2. Provide a copy of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from your lab to the AcSIR Coordinator.
3. Coordinator has to inform about the discontinuation of the student to AcSIR HQ, Ghaziabad.

Not at the moment.

Not as of now.

It is under consideration.

Please click here to know how the request for transcript may be made.

Currently, AcSIR has MoU with The University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar), USA and Royal Melbourne Institute of  Technology (RMIT), Australia.

Currently, there are no student exchange programs. However, in future such programs may start.

Minimum time required for completion of PhD program is three years.

Normally grievances related to the problems in institution (CSIR Labs) where the student is located will be addressed by the host Labs. However, problems related to academic programs through which the student is linked to AcSIR will be addressed by the Academy. Any such query should be sent by email to: info+grievance@acsir.res.in 

Yes, Advisor once allotted can be changed. Lab Coordinator will initiate the process in consultation with Associate Dean which would require recommendation from respective Dean and the Chairman, Senate. Upon receipt of the of the necessary approval, information will be suitably updated in the central database.

In case of change in Advisor for M.Tech/ MS (Research) thesis shall not normally be submitted earlier than three months and PhD thesis shall not normally be submitted earlier than six months from the date of such change.However, the Dean of the particular discipline shall have the right to waive this requirement if he is satisfied that in spite of the change/addition of supervisor the candidate is ready for submission of the thesis. 

Yes, it is available at: http://acsir.res.in/downloads/ under “Guidelines/ forms/format”

Yes you can appear for retest. Retest can be taken under following condition:
1. To improve upon SGPA/CGPA
2. To pass a course.

It should be noted that the latest grades will be reflected on the grade card.
Retest can be taken immediately after declaration of the coursework results.

Students once admitted to a course of study shall be allowed to change stream. The Supervisor can request for the change citing appropriate reasons and forwarded by the coordinator of the lab provided the Dean of both the disciplines provide their consent to the change. This change should be immediately informed to the AcSIR office. The student will have to fulfill the course and credit requirements of the changed faculty of study. Credits earned can be carried forward.”
After the approvals are received, it will be reported in the next Senate meeting.

The normal duration for entire Societal Program is six to eight weeks.

Yes it can be taken up in a team, but this has to be in consultation with your DAC members.

There is no fixed format by AcSIR, you can consult with your DAC members and Lab coordinator.

Your DAC members will evaluate your report and grade as Satisfactory (S)/ Unsatisfactory (X).

Though it is not mandatory but it is highly desirable.

Time period shall be calculated from the date of commencement of Societal Program.

As a PhD student you are encouraged to take up project having two major focus areas: (i) Enhancing Income of the downtrodden, and (ii) To improve quality of life. Please refer to guidelines of Societal Program available at http://acsir.res.in/downloads/ 

Yes, Societal Program needs to be mandatorily submitted before Open Colloquium prior to submission of thesis.

You can submit thesis after completing the minimum academic requirement and the minimum residency requirement. Please refer to handbook available at http://acsir.res.in/downloads/ regarding credits requirement and residency requirement.

It is expected that the entire process after thesis submission leading to completion of the oral examination shall be completed within 8-12 weeks but it largely depends on response level of the external examiner. We make efforts to keep this period as short as possible.

It is advisable to write a short summary of your research work in your regional language.

No.

Yes, hard copy is required to be submitted at the Lab. AcSIR requires a soft copy of the final thesis on a CD after completion of all the formalities.

The required Provisional Degree Certificate is usually issued within five days of approval by the Chairman, Senate.

This would be done in consultation with your Advisor(s) and other DAC members and must be recorded in subsequent DAC meeting. Please note, beyond DAC IV, any request for change in title of the PhD thesis will not be entertained. 

The PhD thesis must be submitted within six months after clearing the Final DAC through Open Colloquium. Submission beyond months will require Dean’s approval for the requested extension period (maximum upto 6 additional months), on the basis of satisfactory reasons for the delay/extension. The permission, if granted, will be recorded at Dean/Associate Dean’s level under intimation to the Associate Director (Academic), AcSIR. If the thesis is not submitted within one year (i.e., six months of usual time plus six months of extension, if granted) of clearing the Open Colloquium, student will have to request the Chairman, Senate (through the respective Dean) for continuation of the registration before the expiry of the granted period of one year. If such a request of the candidate is admitted, he/she will have to reappear for Open Colloquium and clear the same within one month and must submit his/her thesis within the next eleven months after the re-clearance of the Open Colloquium. No further request for reappearing for the Open Colloquium will be considered. During this period of special extension of one year, fees payable will be double and four times of the usual semester fee in the follow-up first and second semester, respectively. Further, fee charged will be for full semester(s), even if the period covered is only part of the semester.

All these provisions/relaxations and compliances thereunder must be completed within the period which is permitted (i.e., usually six years from date of enrollment) for completion of degree as per UGC guidelines.

A formal request letter having due approval of all DAC members and the Director of the concern institute can  be sent to AcSIR office through AcSIR Coordinator for consideration and approval. It must be noted that you are required to pay the tuition fees till you submit your thesis.

The formal certificate is given during convocation which is usually held in September. If, however, the convocation is not held in a specific year, the certificates would be given around that period.

As per UGC guidelines the degree shall be awarded within 180 days of the date by which the students are expected to qualify and become eligible for them following fulfilling completion of all the requirements for the degree. However, PhD certificate is given at different times of the year as described below in FAQ no.I2.

The requirement for completion of PhD thesis examination is complete after the successful viva voce exam report is approved by the Chairman of the Senate. A provisional certificate will be issued only after completion of all the requirements for the PhD examination; usually within 5 days of approval by the Chairman, Senate

AcSIR normally provides a letter explaining the process of issuing the formal certificate and authenticity of the provisional certificate issued as an interim measure when an institution insists on submitting copy of formal certificate. Such letters are issued based on specific request and works in most cases. While AcSIR will accommodate all reasonable requests to issue formal certificate as soon as possible, it cannot be done on out of turn basis under any circumstances.

This is a common question for those students who line up a job or post-doc opportunity while they are still working for the degree. It is an excellent idea to explore possibilities early on, and we always want our students to be successful. However, you must understand that the Universities have to follow certain procedures and the logistics do take some time to generate the certificates and its validation by the competent authorities. UGC has specific guidelines that AcSIR follows keeping in mind the best interest of its students.

• On completion of the viva voce exam, the report duly signed by the Laboratory Director should be sent by the Lab Coordinator to the concerned Dean/Associate Dean for recommendation
• The Dean/Associate Dean forwards his/her recommendation to the Chairman, Senate.
• Chairman, Senate examines and may approve the result of the viva voce exam.
• Only upon approval of the results of viva voce exam by the Chairman, Senate all the requirement for the successful completion of the examination is over. A provisional certificate is given to the student at this point.
• The final results of all the examination including PhD is further ratified by the Senate during its subsequent meeting.
• Senate meeting happens 3 times a year.
• On approval of the results by Senate, the formal certificate can be prepared.
• Once the certificates are printed, those need to be signed by the Director and Chancellor of AcSIR.
• Now, the completed formal certificates are ready to be distributed to the students.

The Thesis Advisor(s) shall be required to initiate the process by submitting the panel of examiners, as per guidelines available at this link, along with all academic records of the student on specific format through AcSIR Coordinator of the concerned CSIR Lab immediately after the Ph.D colloquium/ Open seminar.
The AcSIR Coordinator of the concerned Lab then will do the needful.

Yes, it can be done subject to approval from Dean of the respective faculty through Lab Coordinator.

You (or your Lab coordinator) may directly communicate with us by email: info+faculty@acsir.res.in (with proper supporting document, e.g.: Copy of Office Memorandum) with the copy of email to the Coordinator.

AcSIR accepts nomination as the case arises. Lab Coordinator needs to send the nomination, duly approved by the respective Lab Director, to the AcSIR Office for its further processing. Depending upon your present designation and fulfillment of other criteria, you may be recognized as faculty member of AcSIR. Please refer “Eligibility Criteria for AcSIR faculty” available under Downloads tab of AcSIR website.

Yes, AcSIR issues individual letter depicting your present faculty position at the Academy.

Each Institute willing to appoint Adjunct faculty should send the recommendation of a duly constituted committee in the Institute considering the qualifications, area of expertise etc. of the candidate to the concerned Dean for initiating the action. (For details, please refer guidelines at http://acsir.res.in/downloads/ under “Guidelines for Appointment of Adjunct/ Visiting/ Chair Professors.

Societal Program shall be evaluated and will be given Satisfactory(S)/Unsatisfactory(X)whichever is applicable. However, the grading system for rest of the course work is illustrated below:

Letter Grade	Performance	Numerical Value
A+	Outstanding	10
A	Excellent	9
B+	Very Good	8
B	Good	7
C+	Fair	6
C	Poor	4
F	Very Poor	2
I	Incomplete*	0
S	Satisfactory (for Audit Courses and Level-4 PhD Courses)		Not Applicable
X	Unsatisfactory (for Audit Courses and Level-4 PhD courses)		Not Applicable

* ”I” grade shall be given to students who have (i) Not attended Classes; and/or (ii) Not been evaluated. This implies repeating the full course.

You can do so by obtaining approval from the Dean of respective faculty through your Lab Coordinator. A Co-Advisor can be outside the Institute and he/she may not be a faculty of the Academy.

Total number of students registered for PhD under an AcSIR faculty, including those registered with other Universities or Academic Institutions (if any), should be limited by his/ her position as follows:

1. Assistant Professor: 4 students [A Junior Scientist (Sct. B), if recognized as a faculty of AcSIR, becomes only co-guide]
2. Associate Professor & Professor: 6 students
3. Outstanding & Distinguished Prof.: 8 students

Additionally, even if the student is jointly supervised by a Co-supervisor, the count of the student will be taken as 1 for the primary Supervisor which would apply until the completion of Viva Voce examination for award of PhD degree.

An AcSIR faculty member after superannuating from his/her current position in CSIR will be allowed to continue as a Primary Supervisor of his/her existing Ph.D student(s) as well as allowed to take up fresh Ph.D. student(s), if he/she is appointed to the position of “Emeritus Professor” by AcSIR in consideration of his/her having been awarded the position of Emeritus Scientist by CSIR for working at CSIR lab. However, in all such cases, there must be a regular AcSIR faculty as a Co-supervisor.

The helpful/advisory lines for the follow by such supervisors for the process are given in the subsequent FAQs.

(narration presented in more clarified manner on October 03, 2018)

Guidelines for superannuating scientists:

(1) The scientist would have to plan early enough to be able to have an offer of Emeritus Scientist of CSIR or other organization prior to retirement, if possible.
(2) He/she would take necessary step to be recognized as an AcSIR faculty based on faculty guideline of the Academy based on acquired Emeritus Professorship; the steps initiated by the CSIR Lab Coordinator and endorsed by its Director for final approval by the Senate.
(3) If he/she did not have an Emeritus Professorship from other organizations including CSIR, he/she could attempt to take another route as written in AcSIR Ordinance (item no. 15, page 39) that:
“Upon the recommendation of the Senate, the BoG may appoint Honorary Professors and may confer the title of Emeritus Professor upon any professor who has retired/superannuated from CSIR service.”
(4) If none of the above works, the retiring scientist’s status for supervising an AcSIR registered PhD student would change from Guide to a Co-guide consistent with practice at CSIR Labs. This should be allowed by the Chairman Senate on the recommendation of the Lab Director and then ratified in subsequent Senate meeting.

If a student has completed all the academic requirements including Open Colloquium for submission of Summary of Work/Thesis prior to the date of resignation of the Supervisor, then for academic consideration the scientist would still be recorded as the guide of the student. In such circumstances, however, a co-guide needs to be nominated from AcSIR faculty for taking care of future needs related to completion of the process of award of the degree.

Please refer to the guidelines at http://acsir.res.in/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Guidelines-for-Panel-of-PhD-Thesis-Examiners_17th-Senate.pdf.

AcSIR would surely like to introduce such felicitation at appropriate time.

Yes, the Academy follows reservation guidelines as stipulated in Section 3 of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006. Please refer clause (2) of section 9 of the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research Act, 2011.

Yes it is possible, talk to your Advisor(s) and then to AcSIR Lab Coordinator.  The Lab Coordinator will initiate the process in consultation with Associate Dean which would require recommendation from respective Dean and finally Senate’s ratification.

Not as of now.

Yes this is possible.This provision is only for those students whose positions are NOT directly linked with CSIR positions. For example a student having a Trainee Scientist position with CSIR will not be considered for this provision. However all such request will be decided on case to case basis for up to a period of three months only. Also any request falling in the first year of the enrollment will not be entertained.    

The request for break during PhD program shall need to be forwarded by AcSIR Coordinator with endorsement from the Lab Director to the concerned Dean for recommendation to the Chairman, Senate for approval.

You can still continue academic program on the basis of approval from your supervisor and endorsement by the laboratory Director. As expected you have to pay the tuition fee just like any other student.

The application needs to be made to AcSIR Coordinator of your CSIR Lab/ Institute with appropriate reasons.

You need to take written approval from the Supervisor(s) and the AcSIR Coordinator of the CSIR Laboratory/Institute before applying for such fellowship to avail leave on selection with due approval from the Dean of your faculty of study.

You can get a duplicate certificate on request and upon payment of charges mention as below.

• For Certificate issued within 10 years
  >  Rs. 5000/- per copy for applicants living in India
  >  USD 350/- or equivalent in foreign currency per copy for applicants living abroad
• For Certificates issued more than 10 years ago
  >  Rs. 10000/- per copy for applicants living in India
  >  USD 500/- or equivalent in foreign currency per copy for applicants living abroad