SATYAM — Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation

What is SATYAM?

SATYAM (Science and Technology of Yoga and Meditation) is a research programme of the Department of Science & Technology, conceptualised in 2015 under DST's Cognitive Science Research Initiative (CSRI). According to the DST programme page, SATYAM was created to foster scientific research on the effects of yoga and meditation on physical and mental health and on cognitive functioning, both in healthy people and in patients with disorders.

SATYAM is a research funding programme, not a citizen benefit. It does not pay individuals to practise yoga, does not fund yoga centres as a welfare measure, and does not offer scholarships to yoga students. What it funds is a time-bound research project, hosted by an institution, with a named Principal Investigator.

The two research themes DST lists for SATYAM

1. Investigations into the effect of yoga and meditation on physical and mental health and well-being.
2. Investigations into the effect of yoga and meditation on the body, brain and mind in terms of basic processes and mechanisms.

Between these two themes, SATYAM has supported work ranging from clinical trials of yoga as an adjunct therapy to neuroimaging studies of meditative states. DST lists sanctioned project sets from the 2015-16 and 2016-17 cycles onward, and the programme has continued to issue calls for proposals since.

Who is eligible for SATYAM?

You can submit a proposal if:

• You are a scientist or academician with a research background in yoga and meditation, or in a discipline directly relevant to studying it, physiology, psychology, neuroscience, medicine or cognitive science.
• You hold a regular position in a recognised academic or research institution in India, for at least the duration of the project.
• Your institution is willing to issue an endorsement certificate and administer the grant.

Yoga and meditation practitioners who are not in academic positions are encouraged by DST to take part, but only in collaboration with an academic or research institution of repute. A practitioner cannot be the sole applicant.

You are not eligible if:

• You are a private individual seeking money for personal yoga practice, training or treatment. SATYAM has no personal-benefit component at all.
• You are a yoga studio, gym or wellness business applying for a subsidy. This is not a business incentive scheme.
• You hold only a temporary, contractual or guest position with no institutional commitment covering the project period.
• Your proposal falls outside the two SATYAM themes, for example a purely philosophical or textual study with no scientific investigation.

What documents are required for a SATYAM proposal?

How to apply for SATYAM funding

1. Check the Call for Proposals section on dst.gov.in for an open SATYAM call. Proposals are accepted only against an open call.
2. Download the SATYAM proposal format attached to that call and prepare the proposal in exactly that format.
3. Assemble the team; identify the Principal Investigator, the Co-PIs, and any collaborating yoga or medical institution. Multi-centric and interdisciplinary teams are explicitly encouraged.
4. Build the budget against the heads allowed in the format — manpower, equipment, consumables, travel and contingency, with justification for each item.
5. Obtain the Endorsement Certificate from the Head of the Institution and attach detailed bio-data for the PI and each Co-PI.
6. Obtain institutional ethics clearance if the study involves human participants.
7. Submit the complete proposal through the route stated in the call, before the closing date.

Proposals then go through DST's peer-review and expert-committee process. The project is tenable for a maximum of 3 years.

What SATYAM will not fund

Reading the SATYAM call carefully saves wasted effort. SATYAM is not a source of funds for building a yoga centre, running yoga classes, publishing yoga literature, or organising events and conferences on yoga. It is also not a substitute for a fellowship, a research scholar cannot apply for personal support under SATYAM. Individual research support of that kind sits with ANRF and SERB grant schemes instead.

Where to get help

• Portal: dst.gov.in, the SATYAM programme page and the Call for Proposals page carry the current format and closing dates.
• DST, Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road, New Delhi 110016. The programme officer's contact for the current call is printed on the call advertisement itself; use the contact named there rather than a general address.

Other DST research and infrastructure programmes covered on this site include FIST, PURSE, SATHI and INSPIRE.

How to check your application status

SATYAM does not run a public applicant dashboard the way a citizen welfare scheme does, so status tracking works through the DST project-management route rather than an online tracker.

1. Acknowledgement from the institution's nodal office. When a proposal is submitted against an open call, the host institution's research or sponsored-projects office is normally the one that files it with DST, and it is this office, not the individual PI, that first receives any receipt or reference number. A PI who submitted through their institution should check with that office before assuming the proposal went missing.
2. Peer-review and expert-committee stage. After submission, proposals go through DST's peer review and an expert-committee evaluation, which is not instant. There is no published turnaround time for this stage, so an absence of news for some weeks after a call closes is normal and not itself a sign of rejection.
3. Written communication from DST. DST communicates outcomes, sanction, rejection, or a request for revision, in writing to the Principal Investigator and the institution, typically by letter or email addressed to the PI and copied to the Head of Institution who signed the endorsement certificate. There is no SMS or portal-login status check for SATYAM proposals.
4. Direct follow-up. If no communication has arrived within a reasonable period after the call's stated evaluation timeline (where one is mentioned in the call document), the PI or the institution's sponsored-projects office can write to the programme officer named on the specific call advertisement. The general DST board number, 011-26590000, can route an enquiry to the Cognitive Science Research Initiative desk if the call document does not name a specific contact, but a query addressed to the named programme officer for that call is far more likely to get a useful answer than one sent to the general board line.
5. After sanction. Once a project is sanctioned, ongoing status (fund release, utilisation certificates, progress reports) is handled through the institution's grant administration and DST's standard project-monitoring correspondence, the same as any other DST-funded research grant, not through a citizen-facing tracker.

Common reasons for rejection

SATYAM proposals are turned down for reasons specific to a peer-reviewed research grant, not the document-mismatch reasons that sink welfare-scheme applications.

• Applicant does not hold a regular position. A Principal Investigator on a temporary, contractual, visiting, or guest appointment, or one whose regular position will end before the project's 3-year term is complete, does not meet the basic eligibility bar. Fix: apply only when the PI's regular appointment already covers the full proposed project duration, and say so explicitly with documentary proof rather than leaving the committee to infer it.
• Proposal does not fit either SATYAM theme. Work that is philosophical, purely textual, or historical in nature, or that treats yoga and meditation as a wellness activity rather than a subject of scientific investigation, falls outside both listed themes (effects on physical/mental health, and effects on body-brain-mind mechanisms). Fix: frame the proposal explicitly around one of the two published themes and show the scientific method, measurements, controls, and analysis, not just the intent to study yoga.
• No institutional endorsement, or a weak one. A proposal without a signed Endorsement Certificate from the Head of Institution, or with an endorsement that does not clearly commit the institution to host the project and administer the grant, is treated as incomplete. Fix: secure the endorsement in the exact form the SATYAM format calls for before submission, not as an afterthought once other sections are done.
• Proposal filed outside a call window. DST only accepts SATYAM proposals against an open Call for Proposals; anything submitted when no call is active is not evaluated at all, regardless of quality. Fix: confirm the call is currently open on the DST Call for Proposals page before investing time in the proposal.
• Format not followed. Using a generic research-grant template instead of the specific SATYAM proposal format attached to the call, or omitting budget heads, work plan, or milestones the format requires, makes a proposal easy for the committee to set aside on technical grounds before it is even evaluated for scientific merit. Fix: build the proposal directly inside the published SATYAM format for that call, retaining its section headings and budget structure.
• Missing ethics clearance for human-subject studies. A proposal involving human participants (patients, meditation practitioners, healthy volunteers) that has not secured, or at least initiated, institutional ethics committee clearance is a common weak point, since DST expects this to be in place before work begins. Fix: obtain or apply for ethics clearance in parallel with proposal preparation and reference its status in the submission rather than leaving the field blank.
• Weak or unrelated PI/Co-PI background. Bio-data that does not show prior research, publications, or demonstrable expertise in yoga, meditation, cognitive science, neuroscience, or a directly relevant discipline weakens the scientific-merit case, since SATYAM is evaluated as a research grant, not a general funding request. Fix: build the team so the bio-data visibly maps each investigator's expertise to the specific research question being proposed.
• Budget not justified against actual needs. Since DST does not publish a fixed funding ceiling and approves budgets project by project, a budget that is a round number without itemised justification against manpower, equipment, consumables, and travel is harder for the expert committee to sanction. Fix: cost each budget head from real project requirements and justify it in the proposal rather than requesting a generic lump sum.