Societal challenges refer to problems and issues that affect societies on a large scale, often spanning across multiple domain such as economics, environment, technology, health, energy, waste, water, management, agriculture, and more.

The WISE SCOPE Fellowship program of the Department of Science & Technology (DST) aims to provide opportunities to Women Scientists and Technologists who have completed their Ph.D. and want to utilize their S&T knowledge and expertise for the benefit of society. This program promotes projects that directly deal with challenges at the grassroots level and address them through S&T interventions.  Projects under WISE-SCOPE (WISE-Societal Challenges with Opportunities) should provide S&T solutions to our social problems, livelihood generation, drudgery reduction, health and nutrition-related issues, management of natural resources, sustainable agriculture, climate change, disaster management, etc.

The project proposal should include the development of viable technology/technique with the possibility of lab-to-land transfer, adaptation, and scaling up for the benefit of society under the following broad thematic areas.

Broad Thematic Areas:

1. Energy, Water and Waste Management (EWWM)

2. Engineering and Technology Development (ETD)

3. Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development (ECSD)

4. Agriculture and Allied Sciences (AAS)

5. Health, Food, and Nutrition (HFN)

Eligibility:

1.   Employment: Candidates in regular employment are not eligible for WISE-SCOPE. However, women scientists who are temporarily employed in research or academics may apply to this program but have to leave earlier assignment, if, selected in WISE-SCOPE program.

(The applicant's position in any project, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow, Research Associate, etc. will be considered a temporary assignment.)

2.  Age: The minimum age to apply is 27 years and the maximum is 60 years as of the date of submission.

3.  Educational Qualification: Women Scientists who have completed a Ph.D. in Basic or Applied Sciences or have equivalent degrees like MD/MS/MDS are eligible for WISE-SCOPE.

Financial Support: This Program provides the basic fellowship of the applicant @Rs.55000/- and HRA(as per norms) per month, a Research Grant of Rs. 2.0 Lakh per year, Field Demonstration, etc. of Rs. 1.0 Lakh (for project tenure) and cost of small equipment (up to a maximum of Rs. 2.0 Lakh) along with Institutional overhead charges as per DST norms.

Project Tenure: Up to 3 years.

Selection Process: Criteria of selection will be based on Preliminary screening of eligibility, and then further Applicant’s credentials, identified societal challenge, Scientific methodology proposed, expected beneficiary on the ground by the outcome of the project, etc., and final selection would be made as per recommendations of the Subject Expert Committees (SECs).  The final decision of DST will be communicated to the applicants only after obtaining due administrative and financial approvals.

How to apply: The call is open for proposal submission under WISE-SCOPE at ePMS (https://onlinedst.gov.in). The proposal format is available at https://dst.gov.in and https://onlinedst.gov.in.

For detailed information, Please go through the Guidelines at https://dst.gov.in and https://online-wosa.gov.in. And for further clarification email enquiry-wosdst@gov.in.

Last Date of Submission: Proposal submission is open throughout the year.