Procedure Adopted in Receiving & Reviewing Proposals

The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore serves as the National Coordinator for the STARS program to implement and monitor the process as per scheme guidelines.

1. Announcement of Priority Areas: For each proposal call, priority areas under each scientific domain are publicly announced with submission deadlines and formatting templates.
2. Online Proposal Submission:
   • Suitable templates with instructions are made available offline in DOCX and PDF formats.
   • Principal Investigators register and submit proposals through the dedicated web portal.
   • PIs submit the proposal alongside required documents, institutional endorsements, and Co-PI details.
   • An email-based token verification procedure secures explicit consent from each added Co-PI.
3. Multi-Stage Peer Review: Reviews are conducted by the respective Domain Expert Committees (DECs). The committees adopt multi-stage peer reviewing procedures, including blind and semi-blind screening rounds based on novelty, feasibility, and translational merit.
4. Recommendations & Sanction: Recommended proposals are placed before the Apex Committee for final approval. Successful PIs are intimated by email and final award lists are published on the website.