Department of Science and Technology, IESA Jointly Launch Fellowship Programme on Industrial Research

The government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) has collaborated with India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) for Industry Research and Development Fellowship Programme (IRDFP) 2022.
 
IESA is an industry alliance focused on accelerating the adoption of energy storage, e-mobility, green hydrogen and microgrids in India.
 
The International Platform on Hydrogen Economy Industry-Academia Conclave 2022 was inaugurated by Dr. V K Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, GoI and was organised by DST to facilitate academia-industry engagement to address concerns informed by industry.
 
Commenting on the partnership, Dr Ranjith Krishna Pai, Scientist, TMD, DST, Govt. of India said, “Department of Science & Technology (DST) and India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) are pleased to launch Industry Research & Development Fellowship Programme 2022 (IRDFP) call for applications which supports academia-industry interactions in order to address industry‐informed challenges with the primary goal to create a pathway to support academic researchers in establishing careers in industry. This fellowship will enhance the skills of the Fellow and will be of mutual benefit to both the industry and academic partners. We seek to support industry and academia interactions and DST & IESA have joined hands to becoming the bridge between the academic researchers and the industry partners in the specific area of clean energy.”
 
This fellowship program will provide a pathway for post-doctoral researchers to pursue their industrial research careers in the clean energy sector. It aims to assist recent Ph.D. holders to continue to pursue research on industry-informed challenges in clean energy and to drive research collaboration, translation, and commercialization of research outcomes.
 
The program will further help in bridging the gap between academia and industry by recognizing and supporting innovations in clean energy technologies. It will facilitate the academia-industry interactions, enhancing the breadth of training of academic researchers, and providing them with a pathway to a career in industrial R&D.
 
The fellowship facilitates research areas such as:
• Industry-informed challenges related to energy storage
• Zero-carbon energy
• Smart grids
• Green Hydrogen Technologies
• E-mobility
• Policies in the energy sector
• Economics affecting the energy sector
• Social sciences for the energy sector, and so on
 
“Together with DST, GoI, we at IESA are thrilled to introduce this Industry Research & Development Fellowship Programme (IRDFP) 2022. DST is playing a critical role in funding research and development for energy storage and green hydrogen technologies through Mission Innovation. IESA has set a vision to make India a global hub for R&D, Manufacturing and adoption of advanced energy storage and emerging clean technologies. We are aiming to bridge the industry academy gap and allow promising researchers to work with 150+ leading industries focusing on energy storage, eMobility and green hydrogen ecosystem. This is just a small step. Based on the feedback of the 1st batch, we will look forward to expanding the fellowship to many more researchers in coming years,” said Dr Rahul Walawalkar, President, India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA).
 
To bring immediate action in the field of clean energy research, the DST-IESA fellowship funds research on industry-informed problems across a broad range of disciplines related to clean energy focusing on advanced energy storage, green hydrogen, and e-mobility technologies. The fellowship lasts for a year and offers a monthly stipend of Rs 50,000.
 
The eligibility criteria for this fellowship program include post-doctoral research with a strong interest in and a track record of research in any area related to the clean energy industry, such as science, engineering, business management, public policy, interdisciplinary research, etc. Only Indian citizens under 35 years of age would be eligible for the program. The application process for the program begins on September 30, 2022, and will be closed on December 15, 2022.