Women Scientist Scheme - Category of Fellowships, Eligibility Criteria, Qualifications and Age Requirement

Contents
  1. Category of Fellowships
  2. Eligibility for Women Scientists Scheme
  3. Qualifications Required
  4. Age Requirement
  5. Details about the Categories

Women are a crucial part of the workforce, especially in the science and technology (S&T) stream. There are a lot of women who are not able to make their careers in science and technology activities due to various conditions, and the main problems are the gender gap. So for this, the women of our country have to leave their careers. They also break their career due to the responsibilities of motherhood as well as family. To solve these problems as well as such issues, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has launched the Women Scientists Scheme (WOS) in 2002-03. 

This initiative was mainly taken to provide the opportunities to women scientists and technologists whose age is between 27-57 years and break their career due to various reasons and now wants to return into their mainstream. This initiative of the Department, concerted efforts will make women a strong foothold into the scientific career as well as help them re-enter into the mainstream. This scheme is the best scheme for those women who have lost their dream due to family responsibilities as well as other problems.

Category of Fellowships

This scheme will encourage women scientists to pursue research in desired areas of science and engineering, on the various problems of societal relevance as well as to take up science and technology-based internship followed by self-employment. The categories that are fellowships, with research grants are mentioned below for the Indian citizen:

  • Women Scientist Scheme-A (WOS-A: This scheme is Research in Basic and Applied Science.
  • Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B): This scheme is S&T interventions for Community Benefit.
  • Women Scientist Scheme-C (WOS-C): This scheme is for the Self-Employment internship in Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs).

Eligibility for Women Scientists Scheme

This scheme’s primary purpose is to encourage women in the science and technology domain mainly for those women who break their career due to various reasons. This scheme will provide the opportunity to re-entry into the profession.

Qualifications Required

  • The women who want to apply under this scheme must have a Post Graduate degree, or equivalent degree like M.Sc. in Basic or Applied Sciences or B.Tech or MBBS, etc.
  • The candidates have a degree in M.Phil, M.Tech, M.Pharm, M.VSc or any other equivalent qualification is also eligible under this scheme.
  • PhD in Basic or Applied Sciences degree holder women are also eligible.

Age Requirement

The minimum age a woman required to apply under this scheme depends on categories of the scheme.

  • To apply in WOS-A and WOS-B, the minimum age is 27 years, and the maximum age is 57 years,
  • There are 5 years of age relaxation for the reserved categories like SC/ST/OBC and physically challenged category,
  • The candidates must have to submit attested copies of the required documents.

Details about the Categories

There are three categories of fellowship under this scheme that are mentioned above. All the details about these three categories are discussed below.

Women Scientist Scheme-A (WOS-A)

Women Scientists Scheme-A (WOS-A) provides support to women scientists and technologists to get training in applied sciences in frontier areas of science and engineering. This scheme plays a vital role in gender mainstreaming. This scheme not only safe the brain drains from S&T but also helps women to train and retain in the system. In starting the woman can work as bench-level scientists as well as eventually open new avenues for a stable position in Science and Technology.

Scientific Disciplines

The support is available in 5 disciplines under Women Scientist Scheme-A (WOS-A). The name of all 5 disciplines is mentioned below:

  • Physical and Mathematical Sciences (PMS)
  • Chemical Sciences (CS)
  • Life Sciences (LS)
  • Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS)
  • Engineering Technology (ET)

Last Date of Application

The scheme is applicable for the full year as well as registration is also open for the year. So there is no last date of the application form.

Procedure to Apply

The candidate is allowed to submit a Project Proposal online under WOS-A by using following steps.

1. You will need go to the official website of WSS: online-wosa.gov.in.

2. Now you will need to choose the category of fellowship.

3. Once you choose WOS-A scheme, a screen like below will apear.

4. Now, you will need click the "New registration" link.

5. You will need to clikc the "New Registration" Link. if you already have the login and password, you can use it instead of new registration. Now, you can proceed with registrations and submission. Please note that new submissions are closed in the month of May for WOS-A.

Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B)

The main focus of Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B) is on projects that are related to Science and Technology (S&T) interventions for community benefit. This scheme encouraged women to make use of their scientific knowledge to help people. These types of projects can identify societal challenges as well as deliver possible solutions with the help of the development of viable technology and for its adaptation as well as scaling up. Women scientists who are applying under this scheme have to develop their project for the scientific and technological solutions from the root level to the upper level. The women applying under this scheme must have proper Science and Technology skills as well as be adept at techniques to provide the proposed result.

Areas proposed under Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B)

  • Agriculture, Food and Environmental Challenges (AFE)
  • Strengthening Health Care and Nutrition (HN)
  • Energy (ER)
  • Harnessing Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Water and Waste Management (WWM)
  • Engineering and IT Solutions to Societal Issues (EIT)

Procedure to apply for Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B)

1. The candidate can submit a proposal online by visiting on WOS portal: online-wosa.gov.in.

2. The candidates who want to submit a proposal will need to select the scheme according to their category of fellowship, first.

3. Now, if you choose WOS-B scheme, a screen like below will apear.

4. Now, you will need to click on the Register button.

4. It will take you a form shown like below.

3. The candidates are advised to read all the details carefully before submitting the proposal. Because once the proposal is submitted, you are not allowed to make any changes.

Guidelines for Women Scientist Scheme-B (WOS-B) are mentioned below:

The candidate must have to send a hard copy of the proposal to Scientist-‘G’, KIRAN Division, Department of Science and Technology (DST) Mrs Namita Gupta. For more details, the candidates are advised to send email to [email protected].

Women Scientist Scheme-C (WOS-C)

The Women Scientist Scheme-C (WOS-C) is started by the Patent Facilitating Centre of Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). This scheme’s primary focus is on those women who have knowledge in science, engineering, medicine, or allied areas in the field of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). The management period for this is one year. The training provided under this scheme allows women to work from their home and though maintain a right balance between the domestic demands as well as professional work. This scheme has provided training to 600 women, and 270 women from them are the parent. All 600 women can work now. Some of them are pursuing their career in the area of IPR as well as some are self-employed and have become entrepreneurs.

Eligibility Criteria for Women Scientist Scheme-C (WOS-C)

  • Women who are in permanent positions are not able to apply under this scheme.
  • The age of the candidate should be between 27 to 45 years.
  • The minimum and necessary education qualification for the candidate is Master of Science; Bachelors in Engineering, Technology, or any other equivalent degree.
  • The candidate must be professional in handling programmed database, collection, collation, and analysis as well as report preparation.

Emoluments under Women Scientist Scheme

The fellowship amount provided under the scheme is mentioned below:

  • The candidate who has a PhD or equivalent degree along with HRA and overheads will get Rs 55,000 per month and the total price for this project must not exceed the amount of Rs 30 lakh.
  • The candidate who has M.Phil., M.Tech or equivalent degree along with HRA and overheads will get Rs 40,000 per month and the total price for this project must not exceed the amount of Rs 25 lakh.
  • The candidate who has M.Sc. or equivalent degree along with HRA and overheads will get Rs 31,000 per month and the total price for this project must not exceed the amount of Rs 20 lakh.