भा.प्रौ.सं. गाँधीनगर: उत्कृषटता के 15 वर्षसमाचार


Start Early PhD

IIT Gandhinagar recognizes the importance of creating opportunities for aspiring young learners to gain entry into the exciting arena of scientific research. The Start Early Ph.D. Fellowship of IITGN is conceived to meet this need. This full-time residential fellowship is designed to enable budding scientists and engineers to gain early entry into the Ph.D. programmes at IIT Gandhinagar. The objective of this programme is to put promising young undergraduate students from diverse disciplines on the fast-track mode of cutting edge technological research in order to prepare them to participate in the process of nation building.

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Important Dates (Phase-I)

  • September 10, 2025

    Application Opens

    October 14, 2025
    5:00 PM (IST)

    Application Deadline

    24 to 27 October 2025

    Announcement of the Shortlisted Candidates (tentative)

    1 to 15 November 2025

    Written test and/or interview


Research overview | List of Scholars | PhD — Find out more


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  • Eligibility Criteria

    Eligibility Criteria


    Final year BTech (4-year programme)/BS (4-year programme)/Integrated Master of Science (5-year programmes) students from IITs/IISc with a CPI/CGPA of not less than 6.0 out of 10 at the end of their 3rd year.

    Final year BTech (4-year programme)/BS (4-year programme)/BS-MS (5-year programme) students from NITs/IISERs with a CPI/CGPA of not less than 8.0 at the end of their pre-final year.

    For students in SC/ST/PwD category, a relaxation of 0.5 in the CPI/CGPA shall be applicable on the above-mentioned norms.

    Final year BTech students from other select colleges, as defined by the institute, who are among the top 5 rank holders in the departments at the end of their pre-final year. For students in SC/ST/PwD category, they need to be among the top 10 rank holders as per the relaxed criteria.

    You may check with the HOD/Director of your college to see if your college is included in the list of select colleges. The Department Head / Principal / Director of the respective institute will be required to issue a rank certificate supporting each application. You may download a template of the certificate from the application portal. Students may contact us admission@iitgn.ac.in to check their eligibility.

    There is No GATE qualification requirement.

  • Fellowship

    Fellowship

    Rs. 47,000/- per month (with valid GATE score)

    Rs. 37,000/- per month (without GATE score)

  • Highlights

    Highlights


    GATE score is NOT mandatory for admission

    Candidates are encouraged to appear for GATE for an enhanced stipend rate

    Monthly stipend of Rs 47,000 (For candidates with valid GATE score) or Rs 37,000 (for others)

    Travel support up to Rs 2 Lakhs for attending international conferences

    Support of up to $12,500 may be considered for research at leading Universities/Labs abroad for a period of upto 6 months.

  • Application Procedure

    Application Procedure

    All applications must be submitted online. On submission of the application form, the candidate will be redirected to the homepage of the portal, where they can download the form. The applicants are requested to download the form and keep a copy with them. A mail to the candidate regarding the details of the application and a link to download the application form is sent after the submission.

    You need to furnish a hardcopy of the application form and all the documentary evidence (copies of testimonials, certificates, publications, work experience and research/professional experience) at the time of interview. Incomplete applications will be rejected.

    While applying online you need to upload a rank certificate issued by the Head of the Department of your college/university.

    There is NO application fee.

    You NEED NOT send the hard-copy of the application form.

  • Admission Procedure

    Admission Procedure

    Admission is generally offered on the basis of an interview, which is supplemented by a written test if necessary. The final selection will be mainly based on academic credentials, written test and/or interview.

    The reserved category candidates will be given due relaxation in cutoff marks as per the norms.

    The mode (offline/online) and dates for the written test (if any) and interview will be communicated to the shortlisted candidates by their respective departments.

  • Important Dates

    Important Dates

    Application Opens - September 10, 2025
    Application Deadline - October 14, 2025 by 5:00 PM (IST)
    Shortlisting announcement (Tentative) - 24 to 27 October 2025 (tentative)
    Written test and/or interview - 1 to 15 November 2025(tentative)
  • Focus Areas
    • Biological Sciences and Engineering

      1. Computational Biology, Systems Biology, and AI in Biology
      2. Nanomaterials for biosensing and therapeutic applications
      3. Biomaterials in Drug delivery and implants
      4. Bioplastics and other sustainable materials
      5. Ultrasound (Imaging, Diagnostics, and Ultrasound-mediated therapy)
      6. Plant biology (Development, Reproduction, Cell-cell Signaling, Biotechnology, Agriculture)
      7. Structural Biology and Chemical Crystallography
      8. Food Biochemistry, Food Science & Applied Nutrition
      9. Diagnostic tools for organ transplants, burn injuries, and cancer

    • Chemical Engineering

      1. Reaction Engineering: Heterogeneous catalysis, Catalyst synthesis, Multiphase reactions
      2. Process optimization and control: Process Engineering, Control, and Optimization, Cyber-Physical Systems for industrial manufacturing and buildings, Machine learning and data science
      3. Pharmaceutical Engineering and drug delivery: Biomaterials, Stimuli-responsive hydrogels, nano-drug suspensions, microbubbles for drug delivery and ultrasonic imaging, Pharmaceutical powder processing, Crystallization of pharmaceuticals, polymorphic behavior of pharmaceuticals
      4. Molecular simulations: Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics, Protein aggregation and protein folding, Biomolecular Simulations, molecular dynamic simulations for aqueous solutions of drug molecules
      5. Water treatment: Waste-water treatment, Drinking water
      6. Environmental science and engineering: Particulate matter and aerosols, Building energy management, indoor air quality, atmospheric transport, and transformation of pollutants
      7. Advanced functional materials: Functional materials for CO2 capture and adsorption, Surface Engineering and Superhydrophobic surfaces, Colloids and Interfaces, Rheology, Supercapacitors and other energy storage devices
      8. Polymer science and engineering: Polymer processing, polymer gels, polymer blends, Shape memory polymers, Smart polymeric materials, Polymer ionic liquids, Polymer nanocomposites
      9. Nano & bio-engineering: Bio-printing, 3D printing, Synthetic biology, protein engineering, Hybrid nanomaterials, and biomolecules for agricultural applications

    • Chemistry

      1. Development of machine learning potentials for material simulations; electronic structure methods and Δ-ML models applied to organic solar cells and LEDs.
      2. Simulations of bio-assembly at graphene–aqueous interfaces; computational studies of Ayurvedic formulations; carbohydrate interactions in biomolecular systems.
      3. Sustainable Catalysis – Catalysis for CO₂ conversion to fuels, carbon capture and utilization, green hydrogen generation, and electrochemical energy systems.
      4. Molecular Electrocatalysis – Electrochemical CO₂ reduction and nitrogen-to-ammonia interconversion via molecular catalysts.
      5. Solid-State Energy Materials – Modular metal chalcogenides and topological materials for sustainable energy conversion (hydrogen evolution, CO₂ reduction, thermoelectrics).
      6. Nanomaterials & Photocatalysis – Metal nanoparticle-based photocatalysts, solar-to-hydrogen conversion, single-particle spectroscopy, and optical studies of quantum dots and perovskite nanocrystals.
      7. Small Molecule Activation – Catalysis with main-group and low-valent compounds; dinitrogen and CO₂ fixation using 3d-transition metal complexes.
      8. Ultrafast Spectroscopy – Femtosecond laser spectroscopy to probe dynamics in solar energy and optoelectronic materials (perovskites, organic photovoltaics, molecular aggregates).
      9. Organocatalysis – Design of novel organocatalysts for asymmetric synthesis of bioactive molecules.
      10. Chemical Biology & Therapeutics – Molecular approaches to cancer therapeutics and drug discovery.
      11. Organelle-Targeted Chemical Biology – Small molecules and nanoscale materials for organelle targeting in cancer.
      12. Environmental & Food Chemistry – Adsorptive materials for environmental remediation, synthetic polymers, biocomposites, rare-earth and nitrogen harvesting, and detection/mitigation of food hazards.

    • Civil Engineering

      1. Geotechnical Engineering: Dynamic behavior of soils, soil liquefaction, suction and collapse of unsaturated soils, constitutive modeling of soils, geotechnical earthquake engineering, geosynthetics
      2. Water Resources Engineering: Machine learning architectures for hydrological sciences, resilience of urban water distribution systems, land surface hydrologic modeling, remote sensing applications in hydrology, climate change impacts and risk assessment on water resources, dam breach and levee breach hydraulics, integrated urban water management, blockage/leak detection in pipes, modeling of floods and droughts
      3. Structural Engineering: Fire engineering, tall structures, performance-based earthquake engineering of structures, probabilistic seismic hazard and ground motion characterization, seismic isolation of nuclear structures, structural health assessment and monitoring, resilience of infrastructure, computational solid mechanics, 3D concrete printing, topology optimization, multiscale material modeling, blast engineering
      4. Environmental Engineering: Aerosols and air quality, indoor air quality, pollution mitigation
      5. Transportation Engineering: Mechanistic modeling of flexible and rigid pavements, pavement-environment interaction, urban sustainability, AI/ML applications in transportation engineering
      6. Construction Materials: Sustainable building materials, high-performance concrete, life cycle assessment, characterization techniques

    • Cognitive and Brain Science

      1. Learning, Memory
      2. Motor Control, Movement Disorders, Rehabilitation, Visuo-motor control and processing,
      3. Emotion
      4. Attentional selection and control,
      5. Visual Cognition, Embodied Cognition, Multilingual Cognition,
      6. Robotics, Human Robot Interaction,
      7. Decision Making,
      8. Brain Connectivity
      9. Body Representations and Tactile Perceptipm
      10. Multisensory Plasticity in the Visually Impaired
      11. Bilingual Processing and Mental Lexicon,
      12. Language Acquisition
      13. Multisensory Perception, Attention, & Working Memory,
      14. Curiosity
      15. Human-computer interaction and Brain-Computer interface
      16. Precision Imaging & Neuroanatomy
      17. Predictive brain modeling
      18. NeuroAI
      19. Meditation and Consciousness Studies
      20. Deep phenotyping enabled precision biomarkers

    • Computer Science and Engineering

      1. Theoretical computer science, Computational complexity, Algebra and computation, Algorithms
      2. Machine learning, Game theory, Quantum machine learning
      3. Formal methods and verification
      4. Natural Language Processing, Multilingual and Multimodal Modelling, Mechanistic Interpretability, Information Retrieval
      5. Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Deep Learning Applications for Vision and Graphics
      6. Human-Computer Interaction, Brain-Computer Interface, Accessibility and Assistive Technology, Explainable & Human-Centred AI, Medical Imaging and Healthcare
      7. Software Engineering using Generative AI, Empirical Software Engineering, Software Testing, Mining Software Repositories
      8. System security, Web security, Usable privacy and security
      9. AI hardware design, Processor design and validation, Hardware Security, AI for Hardware Design and Test
      10. Graph neural networks, GNNs for citywide simulation
      11. Computer Networks, Network Security, Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing, and Computer Architecture
      12. Computational Sustainability, GeoAI, Health Sensing, Spatiotemporal AI, AI for Social Good

    • Artificial Intelligence

      1. Machine learning, Game theory, Quantum machine learning
      2. Natural Language Processing, Multilingual and Multimodal Modelling, Mechanistic Interpretability, Information Retrieval
      3. Computer Vision, Computer Graphics, Deep Learning Applications for Vision and Graphics
      4. Human-Computer Interaction, Brain-Computer Interface, Accessibility and Assistive Technology, Explainable & Human-Centred AI, Medical Imaging and Healthcare
      5. Software Engineering using Generative AI, Empirical Software Engineering, Software Testing, Mining Software Repositories
      6. Graph neural networks, GNNs for citywide simulation
      7. Computational Sustainability, GeoAI, Health Sensing, Spatiotemporal AI, AI for Social Good

    • Archaeological Sciences

      1. Environmental Archaeology, Geoarchaeology
      2. Archaeology, Ceramic Petrology, Ancient Technology
      3. Luminescence Chronology, Archaeobotany, Stone Age Archaeology, Vertebrate Palaeontology, Lithic Technology
      4. GIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology

    • Earth Sciences

      1. Climate Change, Water Resources
      2. Carbonate Sedimentology
      3. Seismic Hazard Analysis, Geodynamic Modelling, Statistical Seismology, Tectonics
      4. Micropaleontology, Biostratigraphy, Paleobiology and Paleoclimate Reconstruction
      5. Natural Hazards and risk, Remote sensing & GIS
      6. Geothermal Energy
      7. Reservoir modelling, Fluid flow in rocks, Fluid-rock Interaction, Geological CO2 sequestration, Ore Genesis
      8. River Science, Human-river interactions, Earth Surface Processes (ESP), DEM Applications in ESP
      9. Rock mechanics, Petrophysics, Structural Geology

    • Electrical Engineering

      1. Nanoelectronics, Nanoscale Semiconductor Devices, Nanotechnology, Advanced Semiconductor Devices, Emerging Memories, Multi-scale and Multi-physics modeling, Semiconductor device and process modeling, 2D Materials
      2. VLSI Design, Computing in Memory for ML, AI Hardware, Hardware Security, Computer Architecture
      3. Analog Circuits, High-Frequency Analog Circuit Design, Mixed-signal IC Design, Power Management IC (PMIC) Design, IoT Electronic System Design
      4. Semiconductor Manufacturing, Computational Lithography
      5. Biomedical Signal Processing, Human Computer Interaction
      6. Computer Vision, Image and Video Processing, Computer Graphics, Deep Learning
      7. Adaptive Signal Processing, Array Signal Processing, Audio and Speech Signal Processing
      8. Control Systems, Estimation Theory
      9. Power Systems and Smart Grid
      10. Electrical Machines and Power Electronics
      11. Smart power electronics for Renewable Energy Integration and Electric Vehicles
      12. Photonic Sensors, Mid-infrared laser spectroscopy, Optical fibre sensors, AI and ML in photonics, Nanophotonics, Chip-based biosensors 13. Computational Electromagnetics, Electromagnetic Metamaterials, Antenna synthesis
      14. Next-generation ultrasound imaging and therapy
      15. Wireless Communication, Sensing, and Network Intelligence
      16. Quantum information theory

    • Humanities and Social Sciences

      1. Development Economics, Water Economics
      2. Game Design, Game Studies, Design and Technology Studies
      3. Ethnoarchaeology, Ancient Indian Technologies, Northeast Indian Archaeology and Repatriation
      4. Curiosity and Experiences of Exclusion

    • Design

      Game design: Game Design, Game Studies, Design and Technology Studies Educational Technology: Design for educational multimedia

    • Materials Engineering

      1. Numerical modeling of metal additive manufacturing process; Numerical modeling of friction stir additive manufacturing; Heat transfer and material flow modeling of Solid Stir Extrusion process; Failure mechanism analysis of liquid reinforced composite materials"
      2. Quantum materials and devices, flexible solar cells for "intelligent" fabrics, and 2D materials.
      3. Hydrogen embrittlement, High entropy alloys
      4. AI/ML-assisted accelerated alloy design, superelastic alloys for sealign application.
      5. Materials Science and Engineering
      6. Materials Sustainability; Non-Wetting Surfaces; Micro/Nano Patterning; Tribology; Corrosion; Advanced Ceramics

    • Mathematics

      1. Analytic Number Theory and Special Functions;
      2. Functional Analysis;
      3. Inverse Problems and Integral Geometry;
      4. Partial Differential Equations;
      5. Commutative Algebra;
      6. Matrix analysis and Spectral graph theory;
      7. PDE constraint optimization and inverse problem

    • Mechanical Engineering

      1. Thermofluids: Fluid Mechanics and Heat transfer, Multiphase flows (drops and bubbles), Compressible flows, Turbulence, Combustion and propulsion, Hydrogen Fuel cell Systems for Aerospace Applications, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems for Marine Applications, Hydrogen Fuel Cell Systems for Long Endurance eMobility, Energy Systems, Battery Thermal Management, Complex Fluids, Porous media, Boiling, Condensation and frosting.
      2. Robotics and Dynamical Systems: Control systems, Robotics, Robot learning, Human-robot interactions, Soft Robotics
      3. Theoretical and Applied Mechanics: Mechanical Systems Design, Dynamics and Vibrations, Solid Mechanics, Computational Mechanics, Mechanics of highly deformable structures, Failure and stress-strain response of materials, Mechanics of polymers and self-healing materials, Mechanics of Biological Growth, Composites & Granular Materials.

    • Physics

      1. Theoretical High Energy Physics, Hot QCD matter, Heavy quark dynamics in hot QCD medium
      2. Theoretical HEP : Scattering amplitudes, string theory, conformal field theory
      3. Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics: Strong correlations, Quantum transport, Superconductivity, Magnetism, Topological phases in quantum materials
      4. Experimental soft condensed matter physics, optics (holographic optical tweezers), Anisotropic colloidal particles
      5. Active Matter Physics (Experimental), Biophysics
      6. Experimental condensed matter Physics: 2D materials, Weyl Semimetals, Quantum Materials, Low temperature physics and devices, Thin Film Growth by MoCVD, Single Crystal Growth
      7. Nanomagnetism and spintronics (experiments+Theory): magnetic sensors, memories, and logic/neuromorphic devices

For further information, you may contact us at admission@iitgn.ac.in.