Various funding opportunities in DRDO wings including AR&DB, ARMREB, LSRB and NRB are available as Grant in aid. Some of the thrust areas of research but not limited to are armament applications, armament sensors & electronics, energetic materials combustion and ballistics, detonics and shock waves, micro manufacturing & micro fabrication, gas turbine etc. Some specific Grant in aid scheme are given below and others can be accessed through Hyper link.
Aeronautics Research and Development Board (AR&DB) (DRDO)
The Aeronautics R&D Board has instituted a Grants-in-Aid Scheme to nurture the available research talent and to develop facilities higher technological institutes, colleges and other research centres including industry in the country for promoting research, design and development programmes in Aeronautics and Allied Sciences, keeping in view the future needs of the country with respect to aircraft, helicopters, missiles and all other air borne vehicles & their operation. Under this scheme, grants are offered to approve research institutions, universities or colleges, departments or laboratories or individuals attached to reputed industrial firms with R&D facilities both in the Government and non-Government sector. The scheme will be coordinated through a number of specialist panels duly constituted by the Chairman AR&DB to cover the different disciplines viz. Aerodynamics, Aerospace Resources, Materials & Manufacturing, Propulsion, Structures, Systems & Systems Engineering, Special Interest Group for Micro Aircraft (SIGMA)
For rules & grants:
Armaments Research Board (DRDO)
DRDO is promoting innovative/basic research among Academic and Research Institutions across the country through Grant-in-Aid schemes of Research Boards and Dte of ER & IPR. Under these schemes, grants are offered to research organizations / universities / departments/ laboratories to carry out research in basic sciences and engineering, setting up of basic facilities/infrastructures and conduct of conference/seminars/ symposia/ workshops etc.
Details are available at
Life Sciences Research Board
The Board is striving to enhance health and efficiency of the soldiers operating under different harsh environmental conditions including high altitude, extreme cold, desert and micro environment of different operating systems. The major thrust areas of LSRB are life support system and biomedical technologies for air, land and sea operations, military psychology, cognitive engineering, personnel selection, human adaptation to extreme environments, ergonomics and human factors/engineering for equipment development and man machine interface, nutrition, radioprotection, stress management, combat fatigue, bio-defence against human, animal and plant pathogens, specialized food technologies, vector and malaria control, biotechnology and high altitude agro animal technologies, nuclear, biological and chemical detection, protection and decontamination.
Grants are offered to IITs, universities, colleges, departments, laboratories approved research Institutes, eminent scientists working in reputed industrial / firms (nonprofit earning) with well established R&D facilities, Government and non-Government sector etc. The proposals would be considered twice in a year i.e. April and October each year. The application should reach the Secretary, LSRB alongwith profile of the Institute.
Eligible institutes/ candidates should submit project proposals to the following address in the prescribed format available free of cost at the website:
Naval Research Board (DRDO)
The Board supports basic research that will generate new knowledge potentially useful to the Navy and to train young minds to generate and apply that knowledge for naval purposes.
For submission of project proposal and other details visit:
Extramural Research Scheme
Objective(s)
Research sponsored in academic institutions under the extramural research (ER) scheme focuses on research on phenomena or observations that are not understood, and that lack of understanding is recognized as an obstacle to scientific or technological progress in the broad topic area of relevance to military R&D. The knowledge base so generated is embodied in high-quality technical manpower and in the new understanding, techniques and design-tools developed through the basic research funded. Such new knowledge can also provide pathways to significant advances in the mission-effectiveness of traditional military roles.
Collaterally with the expanded knowledge-base created, a primary end-result of the research that is funded under the ER program is a networked group of qualified people whose expertise resulting from the research can be drawn-upon to build an exploitable area of new technology that has potential military applicability.
The ER scheme also supports the instrumentality of Memoranda of Collaboration (MoC) between DRDO Laboratories & Establishments and academia. These MoC invariably involve more than on DRDO establishment and cover explorations and investigations on a range of topics within a broad subject arena that generically cross-link the research activities of the collaborating Laboratories & Establishments and the research-disciplines of the selected collaborating academic institution. Such institutional cross-linking is organic, not episodic, and is made operational in an MoC through a management structure which includes in its standing arrangements representation of directors of the collaborating DRDO institutions.
III. Who can submit a proposal
Approved Research Institutions, Universities or Colleges, Departments or Laboratories or Scientists of eminence attached to reputed industrial firms with R&D facilities both in the Government and Non-Government sector.
IV. When and how to submit a proposal
Ten copies of the project proposal in the prescribed format may be submitted to the director, ER&IPR. Applications are accepted all through the year.
V. Areas of research support
As explained under the head “Objectives”.
VI. Components of grant
Special equipment, salaries, expendable materials, contingencies and overheads.
VII. Items not allowed out of grant
Building up of basic facilities, personal payments to members of regular staff of the Institution.
VIII. Mechanism of implementation and monitoring
All proposals will be referred to the appropriate specialists of DRDO laboratories and senior professors from academic institutions.. Based on the recommendations of the experts, the proposals are put up to Director Er & IPR or Chief Controller(R&D) The director Er & IPR issues the sanction letter for the approved proposals. The Institution/organization is required to submit 4 copies of the annual progress report of the projects in the prescribed proforma for the Director Er & IPR and other lab experts. The decision to continue the project is taken based on the outcome of the project review meeting.
IX. Forms and Formats available at:
X. Contact Address
The Director
Directorate of Extramural & Intellectual Property Rights
