Aiming to provide opportunity to young researchers of the developing countries for their capacity building in science and technology through their affiliation with premier academic and research institutions in India to carry out short-term research work, the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has announced a fellowship scheme titled ‘Research Training Fellowship for Developing Country Scientists (RTF-DCS)’.  However, Indian nationals are not eligible for the Fellowship.

The Centre for Science and Technology of the Non-Aligned and Other Developing Countries (NAM S&T Centre) is implementing the programme.

The NAM S&T Centre is an inter-governmental organisation with a membership of 47 developing countries spread over Asia, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. The Centre was set up in 1989 in New Delhi, India in pursuance of the recommendations of various NAM Summit meetings for the promotion of South-South cooperation in science and technology. The Centre undertakes a variety of programmes, including organisation of workshops, symposiums, meetings and training courses and implementation of collaborative projects.

The RTF-DCS is a destination India Fellowship with the objectives of promoting mobility of scientists and researchers from the developing countries into India and provide them opportunity to work at Indian R&D/academic institutions to upgrade their research skills and expertise; and to facilitate exchange of information and contacts between the scientists and researchers of India and other developing countries and create a network for building research collaborations.

For this year, the Fellowship will be offered for working in research topics under the broad disciplines of biological and medical sciences, chemical sciences, physical sciences and mathematics, agricultural sciences, earth sciences, engineering sciences, etc.