The Indian Council of Social Science Research had invited online applications for award of ICSSR Doctoral Fellowships for the Financial Year 2026-27 under the following schemes:
- 1. Full-Term Doctoral Fellowship Scheme (two years)
- 2. Short-Term Doctoral Fellowship Scheme (six months)
- 3. Contingency Grant Scheme (one-time consolidated grant).
The last date of online application was 04-08-2026.
The lists of the provisionally recommended awardees on the basis of information provided in the application forms for the three schemes under the UR, OBC (NCL), SC, ST and EWS categories is being published which can be accessed on Annexure I, Annexure II and Annexure III. Candidates who had applied under reserved categories (i.e. EWS, OBC (NCL), SC, ST & PwD), but received marks above the cut-off of unreserved category within their respective disciplines during evaluation by the expert committees, have been duly placed in the list of General Category as per Government of India rules.
The result is completely provisional and it has been prepared on the basis of information provided in the application forms of candidates and certification of the eligibility of applicants by the head of institution in the forwarding letters. Any false information/ suppression of facts by the candidates detected at any stage during the duration of fellowship will lead to cancellation of the award of fellowship and suitable action will be initiated against such candidates. The eligibility and other conditions will be calculated strictly on the basis of documents/ notifications issued till the last date of submission of online applications, i.e. 04-08-2026.
The provisional awardees of the three schemes of the ICSSR Doctoral Fellowships shall be sent provisional award letters through email. The information regarding provisional award of the fellowship to the applicants whose applications were routed through ICSSR Research Institutes shall be sent directly to the concerned ICSSR research institute. The institutes shall, in turn, send the intimation letters to their selected scholars.
To join the ICSSR Fellowship, the awardees need to agree with the terms and conditions of the ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship. The terms and conditions of the ICSSR Doctoral Fellowship shall be as per the Guidelines provided in the final award letter. The provisional awardees of only Full Term Doctoral Fellowships are required to upload the following documents in ICSSR Scheme Monitoring Portal (ISMP) from 09-10-2026 to 16-10-2026:*
1. Age Certificate/SSC Certificate as proof of age
2. Master’s Degree
3. Master’s Marksheet along with university approved CGPA to percentage conversion formula
4. PhD Registration certificate
5. Certificate of recognition of affiliating institution by UGC under 2(f)/12(b)
6. Joining report as per annexure 4
7. Undertaking as per annexure 5
8. Forwarding letter by the affiliating institution as per annexure 6
9. GIB form as per annexure 7
10. PFMS Mandate form as per annexure 8
11. UGC NET Certificate (for those selected under UGC NET qualified category)
12. Caste Certificate (The certificate of OBC (NCL) and EWS(GEN) should be valid for the financial year 2026-27 and issued on or before 04-08-2026) (only for candidates selected under reserved categories)
13. Person with Disability Certificate (only for candidates selected under PwD category)
14. For students registered in colleges having approved PhD programmes, approval letter of PhD programme in the college issued by UGC/ authorized government authority.
*In case of awardees of Short-term and Contingency Grant Fellowships. only hard copies of the above joining documents are required to be sent latest by 16-10-2026. The awardees of Full-term Doctoral Fellowship need to submit the hard copies too latest by 16-10-2026.
The hard copy of the original documents must be sent immediately by speed post to:
The Deputy Director (Research)
In-charge, RFD – Division
Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR),
JNU Institutional Area,
Aruna Asaf Ali Marg,
New Delhi 110067
The requisite documents must be duly forwarded through the competent authority of the affiliating university / institution where the candidate is registered for the Ph.D. programme. If the university/institution of the PhD supervisor is different from the university/institution where the candidate is registered for PhD, then the forwarding by competent authority of the university/institution where the candidate is registered will be considered valid. In such cases, forwarding by the Head of the Institute of PhD supervisor will be summarily rejected. In case of colleges having approved PhD programmes, the approval letter for the same by UGC/other Government authorised bodies must be duly attached with the forwarding letter.
The formats of Annexures 4,5,6,7 and 8 are provided above. Any change/ manipulation/ tempering of the formats will lead to cancellation of the fellowship. After receipt and acceptance of these documents by ICSSR, a final award letter for the Doctoral Fellowship grant will be issued and subsequently the fellowship grant shall be transferred through PFMS to the concerned affiliating institution.
