Note: FAQs are meant for any preliminary learning and are not a substitute to extant rules and regulations for any reference or quote . Only contents and stipulations in original document of rule or of amendment therein from time to time would apply or considered for any formal reference.
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.
Details are available at http://acsir.res.in/programmes/.
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).
Candidates with following credentials are eligible to apply for participation in the program:
- 1st year of 2-year M.Sc program: minimum first-class at B.Sc level or equivalent
- 3rd or 4th year of a 5-year Integrated M.Sc program or equivalent: GPA 6.0 or 60% (upto IV Sem)
- 1st 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
- 3rd 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)
- 3rd or 4th 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
- Release of Advertisement 2nd Friday of November
- Application Start Date 3rd Friday of November
- Application Closing Date 31st December
- Segregation and communication 1st Friday of January
to respective Committees - Shortlisting to be completed by and 4th Friday of January
and communication to AcSIR office - Communication to Shortlisted 1st Friday of February
Candidates centrally by AcSIR - Selection Interview at a 1st Friday of March
common location - Result Declaration and Communication to 15th March
students individually by AcSIR office - Program Duration (2 Months) Anytime between May and August
Paid internship for 20 numbers are usually offered.
Industry sponsored candidates are admitted for the programs, who have to fulfill minimum requirements for the program.
Industry Sponsored Candidates can be admitted to both Masters and Doctoral programs.
There is no bar on age for Industry/Project Sponsored Candidates.
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.
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.
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
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.
- Inform the AcSIR Coordinator of your lab.
- Provide a copy of No Objection Certificate (NOC) from your lab to the AcSIR Coordinator.
- Coordinator has to inform about the discontinuation of the student to AcSIR HQ, Ghaziabad.
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.
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.
After the approvals are received, it will be reported in the next Senate meeting.
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.
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.
- 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 AcSIR Coordinator of the concerned Lab then will do the needful.
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.
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:
- Assistant Professor: 4 students [A Junior Scientist (Sct. B), if recognized as a faculty of AcSIR, becomes only co-guide]
- Associate Professor & Professor: 6 students
- 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)
(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.
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