New Delhi: The government of India runs many fellowship programmes for aspirants who plan to pursue research. Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in Biotechnology is one of them. Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, provides fellowship to meritorious students for pursuing research in Biotechnology through DBT – JRF Programme.
The selection for award of fellowship (DBT-JRF) is made on the basis of Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET) at national level. The test is generally conducted in March month each year. The submission of application commences in the 1st week of January each month. The test is being held at many centers spread all over India.
DBT – JRF Programme is awarded for pursuing research in frontier areas of Biotechnology. The programme is co-coordinated by Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL). Based on BET, two separate merit lists are prepared, one comprising the candidates qualifying for the award of category I (Top 275) and the second, Category II (next 100 in merit list).
Candidates selected in category I are eligible to avail fellowship under the programme. These are tenable in any University/Institute in India where the candidates register for PhD programme. Candidates selected under Category II are eligible to be appointed in any DBT sponsored project and avail fellowship from the project equivalent to NET/GATE, subject to selection through institutional selection process.
Eligibility Conditions:
1 a) Education Qualification:
M.Sc/M.Tech/M.V.Sc. Degree in any of the following discipline:
Biotechnology
Agriculture Biotechnology
Animal/Veterinary Biotechnology
Medical Biotechnology
Marine Biotechnology
Industrial Biotechnology
Environmental Biotechnology
Pharmaceutical Biotechnology
Food Biotechnology
Biochemical Engineering and Biotechnology
Bio-resources and Biotechnology
Bioinformatics
Molecular & Human Genetics
Neuroscience
Or B.E/B.Tech in Biotechnology (4-Year course after 10+2)
1 b) Percentage of Marks
Atleast 60% marks for General & Other Backward Class (OBC) category and 55% for Scheduled Caste (SC)/Scheduled Tribe (ST)/Physically Handicapped (PH) category in aggregate (or equivalent grade) in the qualifying exam.
The candidates who have either appeared or are due to appear in the final examination of their qualifying degree are eligible to appear in the test, under the Result Awaited (RA) category. However, the release of the award letter would be subject to submission and verification of the required documents.
2 Age Limit: Upper age limit for applying for BET is 28 years, relaxable upto 5 years in case of candidates belonging to Schedule Castes/Schedule Tribes, Physically Handicapped/Visually Handicapped and Females; relaxable upto 3 years for OBC (Non Creamy layer) candidates.
Selection Procedure: Selection for award of fellowship is made on the basis of Biotechnology Eligibility Test (BET) at national level. The test is being done in MCQ (Multiple Choice Question) type question paper comprising of two parts. Part-A includes questions from General Science, Mathematics, Chemistry, General Aptitude, Analytical, Quantitative Ability, General Biotechnology etc. Part-B includes questions from specific areas of Biotechnology.
Negative marking for wrong answers is applicable.
Timeline: The test is generally conducted in March month each year. The submission of application commences in the 1st week of January each month. The Department of Biotechnology (DBT) generally releases notification for BET in December month of each year.
The BET 2017 was held on 19 March 2017 while the online application commenced from 04 January 2017.
DBT JRF program was initiated in 2004 to provide fellowships for biotech students pursuing research in universities and / or research institutions in the country.
