The STS online registration portal opens every year around mid December and continues mid January. STS-2023 online registration and application portal opens from 20th December, 2022 may pl. see the STS 2023 announcement for details.

Students are free to choose any topic related to medical research (list of topics given in the application process) depending on their interest. The topic should be relevant and should lead to creation of new knowledge or help in gaining new knowledge or skills by the student. Research should not be carried out on well established/ known facts.

Indian National students studying in recognised medical colleges of India can apply for STS. Students who are holding OCI cards/ PIO cards/ NRI’s studying in Indian Medical College can also apply. Students from foreign medical colleges are not eligible for this program.

Please visit ICMR website (www.main.icmr.nic.in) and go to through all the information/ instructions under STS link, register your email address and then apply ONLINE.

Students should use their email ID and in case they do not have an email they may create a new e-mail id before registration. They should remember their email id and its password and be able to access their account.

STS program is open only to medical students (MBBS/BDS) who have not yet appeared in their final year exams. Paramedical/non medical/students of other courses are not eligible.

No, you will not be eligible.

From the year 2019 onwards, BDS students are eligible to apply for STS.

Information regarding last date for registration and proposal/report submission is provided on ICMR-STS website. Kindly note that the last date will not be extended further.

A student can apply each year till he/ she appears in the final year exams. However interns and who awarded once are not eligible. One student can avail the fellowship only once during their MBBS/BDS course.

Registration form is divided into three sections:

Login Details: Student’s active email id and mobile number.
Course Details: Student name, course, college name and address.
Personal Details: Student’s date of birth and residence address.

Kindly note that Guide’s details/ title of proposal/ other details are not required at the time of registration.

This may happen if your internet browser is not updated. Kindly update your internet browser or try to access STS link from another location/ computer system.

You would get a time limit of 20 minutes to fill up and submit the online form for one session of login, if the screen remains idle for more than 20 minutes the above message will be displayed on the screen and you will have to start all over again. Therefore kindly have everything ready for submission and complete the process in the given time.

Yes, you will get a confirmation message on your computer screen and an automated email will also sent into your registered e-mail ID. In case after successful submission is done and you do not receive email then please send an email immediately to stshrd2017@gmail.com for the same.

You will get an opportunity to make a change in your registered details at the time of proposal submission. After proposal has been submitted you may send an email request to stshrd2017@gmail.com for changing previously registered details. However registered email address will not be changed.

The submission will begin after the registration period is over. (Generally between 10th January to 25th -27th January each year) For exact dates please read “Application Instructions” on the ICMR-STS website.

Please note that one student should register once and submit only one proposal. Similarly one guide can take one student under him/ her each year. In case duplicate names of student or guide are found all applications will be automatically rejected.

The program automatically searches for duplicate registration and all duplicate entries will be deleted. In case you need to register again you must send an email to stshrd2017@gmail.com and request to cancel your incorrect previous registration. In case the registration period is over you may send an email to stshrd2017@gmail.com for changing previously registered email-id.

No, this is not permitted. All regulatory clinical trials fall under the preview of Drugs & Cosmetics Act & Rules and should not be conducted by an undergraduate student.

Name and Contact details of student/guide should not be present in the proposal/report (including name, address, email-ID, telephone number). Name of medical/dental college or Department may be present if relevant to the objectives of the study.

Part B (Guide details) may be filled up by the student or the guide.

Application Attestation Form (AAF) is to be submitted with the research proposal and Report Attestation Form (RAF) is to be submitted along with the report.

Attestation of photograph is not required.

It is possible that STS online link IP is blocked in your institution or in your locality due to some security reasons. In such case you should request your network administrator to unblock IP address or try to submit from another place/location.

On successful completion you will get an automated message as well as an email will be sent to your email address. Kindly do not press refresh button while uploading or when the submission process is going on.

Result for proposals will be announced around early April every year and for the report around last of February every year. For more details please read the updated notifications on the ICMR website.

Minor changes may be acceptable. You may however need to take permission from the ethics committee for any changes. Major changes will not be permitted. You must inform (with appropriate justification/reason) regarding the changes at the time of report submission. These will be reviewed and may or may not be accepted.

No, you do not have to submit anything now. You must obtain an ethics committee approval before beginning your research. You are free to complete your work during any 2 months between April-October and submit the report before last date. At the time of report submission you will be required to submit all documents including ethical clearance or other information like change of guide etc.

Ethics committee approval should be obtained any time between January-April before beginning your research work. Submission of ethical clearance at the time of submission of application/proposal is optional. However before beginning research the ethics committee approval is mandatory and should be obtained. A copy of the same must be submitted along with the report. No research should be done if ethics committee has not given the clearance. Report on research carried out without the ethical clearance or late approval by IEC’s which does not give 2 months time for research or for any other such reason, the report may not be accepted.

You may do so however you will need to take a number of extra approvals (from your guide, college authorities, ethics committee, Co-Guide from the other Institution, Institutional Head and ethics committee from the other Institution).

The student and his/her Guide from the same medical/dental college are free to work in collaboration with another Institute after obtaining due approval from the other Institution/ college. Kindly note, that in such cases ethics committee approval will be required from both the Institutions. In case project involves field work in nearby areas and no other Institution is involved, then the ethics committee of the medical/dental college should be willing to review and monitor the work, taking responsibility of the safety and welfare of the research participants.

Preferably the parent should not be the guide of his or her child in view of conflict of interest, however permission of college authorities may be taken for exceptional reasons and the conflict of interest may be declared to the ethics committee.

No, it is not required. You may extract the relevant data and present it in the tabular form in the report.

No, you need to only submit one blank unsigned consent form/ case report form. Names or any confidential information about patients/ research participants should not be submitted.

Yes, the student may approach another faculty member who fulfills eligibility criteria from the same department and same college and take permission of college authorities regarding the change. You do not need the permission of ICMR for this change. However you need to inform ICMR regarding this before report submission time through email and also update the same details at the time of report submission. The student must carry out the research in his/ her own medical/dental college under the guide who is employed in the medical/dental college as a faculty. Only permanent full time faculty members working in any of the Department of the Medical/Dental College where the student is enrolled can act as the guide.

If there is a change of guide you will be able to provide the details of new guide in the ONLINE Report Submission Form at the time of report submission between August - October. You will also be required to provide reasons for this change. There is no need to put this information in the STS report or to send information to us by email.

Within Acrobat, click on the Tools menu and select Combine Files.
Click Combine Files, and then click Add Files to select the files you want to include in your PDF.
Click, drag, and drop to reorder the files and pages.
When finished arranging files, click Combine Files.
Many free tools are available on web, through these tools you can also merge files into one PDF.

Student can make use of internet or available software’s/ tools for making/ reduce the size of pdf file as many free tools are available through internet. In case you have a difficulty, kindly take help from computer personnel.

Open the Microsoft Word.
Choose the “Insert” tab and from that menu ribbon select "Picture" option.
Browse your graphic file.
Choose your image, and then click Insert.

In Excel, select the worksheet data/graphs/chart that you want to copy to a word document.
On the Home tab, in the clipboard group, click copy. Keyboard shortcut: you can also press CTRL+C.
In the word document, click where you want to paste.
On the Home tab, in the clipboard group, click paste or paste special. Keyboard shortcut: you can also press CTRL+V

Please clink on “I forgot my password?” link on STS login page. Enter your registered email id and press “Recover Password” button. An automated email will be sent to your registered email account with your password.

There is no specific requirement; you are free to choose any file name.

No, since STS is an online paperless program, there is no need to submit hard copies of the documents.

Payments will be made online, only to the STUDENT’S OWN SINGLE HOLDER nationalized bank account. The payment of stipend will be made by RTGS only and therefore it is essential for the student to have a bank account in his/ her name only. PARENT’s/GUIDE’s ACCOUNT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.

No joint account will be accepted.

A cancelled cheque is one, in which the word “Cancelled” is written over it and should not be signed or dated. By writing the word cancelled over the cheque, no one can misuse it. However, the information on the cheque is required by ICMR account department to verify the account number, cheque number, IFSC and MICR codes etc.

You are free to publish a paper/ present your work in conferences without seeking permission from ICMR. However you must acknowledge the support received from ICMR under STS program for your research and send a reprint of your paper to ICMR for records.

Kindly note that there is no procedure for automatic publication of STS reports in ICMR journal/ bulletin. In case you want to publish, you may consult your guide and identify a suitable journal and write up a paper for submission as per journal requirements.

Several Government agencies including ICMR offer travel scholarships, however these fellowships are not linked to STS program. You may visit the website to obtain further details and apply accordingly.

e-Certificates will be issued online on STS portal after declaration of report results (around September or October every year) and an email will be sent to students informing about the same. The students will be requested to login with their credential and download their respective e-certificates from the ICMR-STS website.

About 3 months (around June) after report results are declared stipend will be transferred through online mechanism into the student’s own single holder bank account as per details provided in the online submission form. An email will also to sent to inform the students at that time.

Yes, stipend/e-certificate shall be issued only to those students whose report is approved by Experts after evaluation. In case the report is not accepted by ICMR, no stipend/e-certificate will be issued to the student.

The cost of research is to be borne by the medical/dental college/department where the research will be conducted. The student should discuss the same at the beginning itself with College Research administration and his/her Guide, before submitting STS research proposal to ICMR.

No these are not required.

You will have the opportunity to edit/ update your address in the online form at the time of report submission or if the change is after report submission you may send details of your new address by email to stshrd2017@gmail.com

Contact information is provided on ICMR-STS website main page.

To recognise the efforts of the Guide, his/her name is printed in the STS Certificate. Co-Guides are not recognized by ICMR for STS Program. The Certificate will be issued only to the Student whose report will be selected. However the Guide can keep a xerox/scan copy of the same.