Women biotech scientists await funds for research

Almost 5 months after being chosen for the DBT Biocare programme, an initiative by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) to encourage girls scientists, not one of the 75 chosen candidates has acquired the funds promised nor salaries.

The DBT, which is underneath the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), has been working the Biocare programme since 2011. It is especially meant for the profession growth of unemployed feminine scientists for whom it will likely be the primary extramural research funding sanctioned by the federal government.

A doctoral girl researcher chosen underneath the programme is eligible for a ₹60 lakh grant for three years. This features a wage part of ₹75,000 a month.

From 2020 to 2024, on common yearly, almost 50 girls scientists have been beneficiaries of the programme, in line with the response to a query within the Rajya Sabha in March. This yr, 75 girls scientists had been chosen on March 30, following which they’re anticipated to start their research tasks. However, one of many chosen scientists mentioned that within the absence of the required sanction letters or funds, they had been unable to start their research.

‘No response’

“For the past five months, we have been writing to the DBT regarding the release of funds. Initially, we were told that this would be released within a month but now nobody is responding to our calls. One of the conditions for this grant is that we cannot avail ourselves of research funds from any other project, so some of us have quit even international post-doctoral fellowships and are now left in the lurch,” a researcher instructed The Hindu on situation of anonymity.

Rajesh Gokhale, Secretary, the DBT, instructed The Hindu in a textual content message that the funds can be launched “in the next 10 days”. Sources within the Science Ministry mentioned the delay was as a consequence of a change within the fund disbursal coverage, effected since November 2024. Under this scheme, known as the Treasury Single Account system, funds now not go from the departments involved (for e.g. the DBT) to beneficiaries however is routed by way of a centralised system, underneath which financial institution accounts of beneficiaries are linked to the Reserve Bank of India. Though a step in direction of making certain transparency in Central authorities accounting and disbursal, the execution of this technique has been tardy.

As The Hindu reported in May, a marquee scholarship scheme of the Science Ministry – the INSPIRE fellowships – has additionally seen delay in fund disbursal to a number of research students.