Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship (AKTINF)

What was the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship?

Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship (AKTINF) was a research fellowship launched in 2017 to recognise and support translational research by engineers and technologists in public-funded institutions in India. It was administered by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) with the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) under the Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology. It was named after Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

According to INAE and DST, the fellowship paid Rs 25,000 per month in addition to the fellow's salary, together with a research grant of Rs 15 lakh per annum and an overhead of Rs 1 lakh per annum to the host institution. A maximum of 10 fellowships were awarded each year. The aim was to let established engineers translate research into working technology and innovation that industry and society could use.

Key features (as originally offered)

• Rs 25,000 per month over and above the fellow's regular salary.
• Rs 15 lakh per annum research grant, plus Rs 1 lakh overhead to the host.
• Initial term of three years, extendable to a maximum of five years.
• Up to 10 fellowships a year, across engineering disciplines.
• Awarded by nomination and evaluation, not by open application.

Current status: no longer accepting nominations

The fellowship is no longer open for fresh nominations. After SERB was reconstituted as the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), AKTINF was not continued in its earlier form. The objective; supporting high-impact, translational engineering research; now sits within ANRF's own programmes. Prospective applicants should look at ANRF's translational research and innovation schemes rather than AKTINF. Anyone tracking the earlier scheme should verify the current position directly with INAE or ANRF before planning around it.

Who was eligible for the fellowship?

A nominee could be considered if:

• They were an engineer or technologist working in a public-funded institution in India.
• Their work involved translational research — turning research into usable technology.
• They had a minimum of five years of service left in their parent organisation.

Who could not apply:

• The fellowship was by nomination only; individuals could not apply directly on their own behalf.
• Researchers outside public-funded institutions, or those with less than five years of service remaining, were not eligible.
• With the scheme closed to fresh nominations, no new candidate can be considered under AKTINF now, regardless of merit.

What documents were required?

How to apply for the fellowship

The fellowship was nomination-based, and it is no longer accepting fresh nominations. For historical reference, the process was:

1. A candidate was nominated for the fellowship: self-application was not the route; the case had to be put forward and supported.
2. The nomination form, biodata, publication record and research proposal were submitted through INAE (by email as a PDF to inaehq@inae.in).
3. The host institution endorsed the nominee's employment and confirmed at least five years of remaining service.
4. INAE, with SERB/DST, evaluated and selected up to 10 fellows a year.

Since the scheme is closed to new nominations, this route is not currently available. Engineers seeking similar support should approach ANRF for its active translational research and innovation programmes.

How much did the fellowship provide?

The fellowship provided Rs 25,000 per month over and above the fellow's salary, a research grant of Rs 15 lakh per annum, and an overhead of Rs 1 lakh per annum to the host institution. The award ran for three years, extendable by up to two more years based on performance, for a maximum of five years.

Help and current position

• INAE: inaehq@inae.in
• Official page: inae.in (Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship)
• For current opportunities: the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF)

Because AKTINF is closed to fresh nominations, treat the figures above as a record of what the scheme offered. Confirm the present-day equivalent and its terms with INAE or ANRF before making plans.

Who is eligible

AKTINF is closed to fresh nominations, so this checklist is a record of the eligibility bar that applied while the fellowship was active, useful mainly for anyone assessing whether a past case or a similar ANRF programme would have applied to them.

A candidate could be nominated if they met all of these:

• Held a regular position as an engineer or technologist in a public-funded institution in India (a government lab, IIT, NIT, CSIR institution, or similar body), not a private-sector employee.
• Had a demonstrated body of translational research: work that had moved, or was moving, from a lab result toward a usable technology, product, or process, not purely theoretical or basic research.
• Had at least five years of service remaining in their parent organisation at the time of nomination, so the fellowship's three-to-five-year term could run without the fellow retiring or leaving mid-way.
• Had an institution willing to formally endorse the nomination and confirm the candidate's employment and remaining tenure in writing.
• Had a sponsor willing to put the nomination forward: since AKTINF ran on nomination rather than self-application, a candidate needed a nominating authority (typically the host institution or a recognised academic body) to initiate the case.

A candidate was not eligible, or could not be considered, if:

• They worked in a private company, an NGO, or an institution that was not public-funded, regardless of their research record.
• Their work was confined to basic or theoretical research with no translational or applied component.
• They had fewer than five years of service left before retirement or a planned move.
• No institution or sponsoring body was willing to nominate them: individual self-nomination was never accepted under this scheme.
• They are assessing eligibility today: with the fellowship discontinued after SERB's reconstitution as ANRF, no one is eligible for AKTINF itself any longer, irrespective of how well they would have matched the criteria above. The equivalent question now is whether they qualify for ANRF's current translational research and innovation programmes.

How to check your application status

There is no live AKTINF application or nomination to track today, since the fellowship has stopped accepting fresh nominations. How status checks worked, and what to do depending on where a case stands, differs by situation:

1. If a nomination was submitted before the scheme closed: status was never tracked through an online portal or reference number. INAE, which administered the nomination process, corresponded directly with the nominating institution and the candidate by email as the case moved through evaluation with SERB/DST. The only way to check on such a case is to write directly to INAE at inaehq@inae.in, quoting the candidate's name, the institution that nominated them, and the approximate date of submission.
2. If a fellowship was already awarded and is running or has run its term: queries about disbursal of the monthly amount, the annual research grant, or the institutional overhead should go to the host institution's finance or research office first, since AKTINF payments were routed through the host institution rather than paid to the fellow directly by INAE. If the institution cannot resolve it, escalate to INAE.
3. If no nomination exists and someone wants to know whether the scheme has reopened: the only reliable source is INAE's own AKTINF page and ANRF's official communications. There is no status to "check" for a person who was never nominated; the correct action is to monitor ANRF's active programmes for a translational-research fellowship serving the same purpose, rather than wait for AKTINF itself to resume.
4. General contact route: since there is no dedicated helpline for AKTINF, all status queries, whether about a pending nomination, a running fellowship, or the scheme's current status, go through INAE's email address rather than a phone line or online tracker.

Common reasons for rejection

Because AKTINF ran on nomination rather than open application, most of the reasons a case failed were about the nomination itself and the case built around it, not about a form being filled incorrectly.

• Candidate did not meet the five-year remaining service requirement. Institutions sometimes put forward strong researchers who were too close to retirement or to the end of their contract to complete even the initial three-year term. The fix, for a future equivalent programme, is for the nominating institution to check remaining service length against the full fellowship term before submitting a case, not after.
• Research record was not translational. A candidate with an excellent publication record in basic or theoretical engineering research, but no evidence of work moving toward an applied technology or product, did not fit AKTINF's specific translational-research mandate. The fix is to frame the research proposal and biodata explicitly around the applied or translational outcome, not just academic output, when nominating for this type of fellowship.
• Host institution was not public-funded. Nominations from private institutions or private-sector-linked labs did not qualify regardless of the individual's merit. This is a structural eligibility gap, not something a stronger application could overcome; the fix is confirming the institution's public-funded status before investing time in a nomination.
• Nomination came from the candidate rather than an institution or sponsoring body. Since self-nomination was never accepted, cases that arrived without institutional endorsement were not considered complete nominations at all. The fix is securing the host institution's formal endorsement and having them route the case, rather than a candidate submitting material directly.
• Incomplete supporting documents. Nomination form, biodata and publication record, research proposal, and the host institution's endorsement were all required together; a case missing the endorsement letter or a research proposal in the required detail would not proceed to evaluation until the gap was filled. The fix is treating all four documents as a single package to be completed before submission, not sent piecemeal.
• Nomination submitted after the scheme's discontinuation. With AKTINF no longer accepting fresh nominations following SERB's reconstitution as ANRF, any nomination attempted now will not be considered under this scheme at all, regardless of how well it meets the older criteria. The only fix is to redirect the case toward ANRF's current translational research and innovation programmes instead of AKTINF.