Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS)

What is the Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS)?

The Collaborative Research Scheme (CRS) is a research-grant programme under the Ministry of Education, administered by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and rooted in the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP). A World Bank-assisted initiative to strengthen technical education in India. The National Project Implementation Unit (NPIU) has historically coordinated TEQIP-linked activities.

According to AICTE material on the scheme, CRS provides financial support in the form of research grants for collaborative projects, supporting the research work of faculty, including young faculty recruited in TEQIP institutions; by pairing them with faculty of other project institutions and premier institutions across the country. The emphasis is on collaboration: a project brings together researchers from more than one institution to work on a shared research problem, rather than funding an isolated individual.

Main features

• Research grants for collaborative projects led by technical-institution faculty.
• Designed to build the research capacity of faculty in project institutions.
• Administered by AICTE under the Ministry of Education, linked to TEQIP.
• Routed through institutions, not paid to individuals as a scholarship.

How CRS relates to TEQIP

CRS grew out of the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP), a long-running, World Bank-assisted effort by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education) to raise the quality of engineering and technical education in India. TEQIP funded better laboratories, faculty development and, through instruments like CRS — research activity in participating institutions. A common confusion is to treat CRS as a scholarship or a fellowship; it is neither. It is a project grant: money is sanctioned to an institution to run a specific, time-bound collaborative research project led by its faculty, and the deliverable is research output, not a personal payment. Because TEQIP itself has been wound down and restructured over the years, any prospective applicant should treat published amounts and timelines as indicative and rely on the current call notified by AICTE. Faculty interested in related research support may also look at AICTE's separate Research Promotion Scheme, which likewise funds institution-led research rather than individuals.

Who is eligible for the Collaborative Research Scheme?

Who can apply:

• Faculty of eligible technical institutions; including TEQIP project institutions (focus and non-focus) and premier institutions: apply as the principal investigator.
• The project must be collaborative, involving co-investigators from other institutions.
• The application must be endorsed and forwarded by the institution.

Who cannot apply:

• Individual students and members of the public; CRS is not a scholarship or a personal-benefit scheme, and there is no direct citizen application.
• Faculty who cannot obtain institutional endorsement, or whose institution is not eligible under the scheme.

Because CRS is an institution-routed research grant, the correct route for an interested researcher is through their own institution's research or TEQIP cell, not a personal online form. If you are looking for a scholarship for study, this is not the right scheme.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Collaborative Research Scheme

1. A faculty member identifies a research problem and collaborating faculty at one or more other technical institutions.
2. Prepare a project proposal with objectives, methodology, the collaborating institutions and an item-wise budget.
3. Obtain institutional endorsement from the head of the applicant institution.
4. Submit the proposal online through the AICTE/NPIU portal during an open call for proposals.
5. Proposals are evaluated; on approval, the research grant is sanctioned to the institution to carry out the project.

Help and contact

• AICTE contact: 011-29581333 (Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi)
• Portal: aicte.gov.in

CRS is a competitive, institution-routed research grant tied to the TEQIP framework. Calls for proposals and precise eligibility, funding ceilings and timelines are announced by AICTE/NPIU; confirm the current status and any open call on the AICTE website before preparing a proposal, as TEQIP-linked schemes are periodically restructured.

How to check your application status

Because a CRS proposal is submitted by the institution, not by an individual faculty member acting alone, status tracking works through the institutional and AICTE/NPIU channel rather than a personal login citizens would use for a benefit scheme:

• Ask the institution's TEQIP or research cell first. The principal investigator's own institution is the party that submitted the proposal on the AICTE/NPIU portal, and it holds the reference or proposal number, the submission date, and any acknowledgement received. This is the fastest way to know whether a proposal has moved to evaluation.
• Check the AICTE/NPIU portal for the specific call. Proposals are invited under time-bound calls; the portal page for that call typically lists whether shortlisting, expert-committee evaluation, or sanction has been completed for the current cycle, rather than offering a per-application tracker.
• Call the AICTE helpline for the current call status. The AICTE contact number (011-29581333, Nelson Mandela Marg, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi) can confirm whether a call for CRS proposals is currently open, closed, or under evaluation, though it will not have institution-specific case details on hand for every enquiry.
• Watch for a sanction letter, not a portal notification. Because the grant is sanctioned to the institution rather than paid to an individual, the definitive sign of approval is a sanction order issued to the institution's registrar or principal, copied to the principal investigator, rather than a status flag on a personal dashboard.
• There is no SMS or citizen-style status alert for CRS. Unlike direct-benefit schemes for individuals, CRS has no SMS updates or a personal application ID a faculty member can look up independently online; all confirmed status comes through the institution or directly from AICTE/NPIU correspondence.

Common reasons for rejection

CRS proposals are evaluated competitively against a limited pool of funds, and rejections tend to fall into a few recurring, specific patterns rather than paperwork errors alone:

• The project is not genuinely collaborative. A proposal built around a single institution's faculty, with co-investigators from other institutions added only on paper, fails the core test of the scheme. The fix is to build in real division of research work across the collaborating institutions from the proposal stage, not add partner names after the design is finished.
• The applicant or institution falls outside the eligible category. CRS targets faculty at TEQIP project institutions (focus and non-focus) and premier institutions; a proposal from faculty at an institution outside this defined set is rejected regardless of the research merit. Confirm current institutional eligibility with AICTE/NPIU before investing time in a proposal.
• Missing or weak institutional endorsement. A proposal forwarded without a clear endorsement from the head of the applicant institution, or with an endorsement that does not match the named principal investigator and co-investigators, is treated as incomplete. Secure the institution's formal forwarding letter before submission, not after a query is raised.
• The budget is not itemised or is disproportionate to the project's scope. A lump-sum figure without a head-wise breakdown, or a budget that is clearly inflated relative to the stated objectives and methodology, invites rejection at the evaluation stage. Prepare an item-wise cost estimate tied directly to specific project activities.
• The proposal is submitted outside an open call window. CRS does not accept proposals on a rolling basis; submissions made when no call is currently open are not evaluated. Confirm an active call on the AICTE/NPIU portal before preparing documentation.
• The research objectives and methodology are too vague to evaluate. Proposals that describe a broad research area without specific, measurable objectives, a defined methodology, and expected deliverables score poorly against sharper, well-scoped competing proposals. Reviewers are comparing proposals against each other, so specificity is what separates a funded project from a rejected one.
• An individual applies expecting a personal grant or scholarship. Applications from individual students or members of the public, submitted in the mistaken belief that CRS pays a personal benefit, are rejected outright because CRS funds institution-led projects only, with no direct citizen application route.