The Central government has now taken steps to make the process of accessing grants easier for scientists. This will also simplify the hiring of associates for research and development projects. This has been done through the relaxation of compliance guidelines for scientists, as per a report in The Indian Express.
Minister of State for Science & Technology, Dr Jitendra Singh, said, "We have released new guidelines for ‘Ease of doing science’. We are also developing a single common portal to apply for all grants, scholarships and fellowships across all science ministries and departments as well as science agencies in the country. Issued on February 26, the new guidelines aim at reducing the compliance burden and switching from research administration to research facilitation.’’
The new move also comes with a single-step approval for administrative issues like budget re-appropriation within the recurring head and change of principal investigator. The new guidelines also state that salaries for the first two years will be released during the first year as 'grant-in-aid' in the project. For a project of three years, the new rules dictate that there would only be one mid-term and one completion review of the project.
