IISER Kolkata is pleased to announce its Part-time PhD program, designed to facilitate advanced research pursuits for working professionals. This program offers a flexible pathway for individuals employed in technical, educational, or medical fields within industry, government institutes, organizations, and academia to undertake doctoral research while sustaining their current professional commitments.

 

General Eligibility Criteria:
Prospective candidates must meet the following prerequisites:

• Possession of a Master's Degree with a minimum of 55% marks, OR a 4-year/8-semester bachelor's degree program with a minimum of 75% marks in aggregate or its equivalent grade.
• A relaxation of 5% marks may be allowed for those belonging to SC/ST/OBC (non-creamy layer)/Differently-Abled, Economically Weaker Section (EWS) and other categories of candidates as per GoI norms. Candidates belonging to the respective reserved category need to submit relevant certificates and documents.
• Applicants must be less than 50 years of age at the commencement of the PhD.
• A minimum of 3 years of regular professional experience in their respective field is mandatory.
• A qualifying examination (e.g., NET/GATE) is not mandatory for admission to this program.
• Submission of a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the current employer is mandatory. The NOC template (Click here) should be followed. [If selected, the NOC must be submitted during the interview].

Department Specific requirements:

Department	Requirements
Biological Sciences(DBS)	No specific additional requirements.
Chemical Sciences(DCS)	MS (MSc)/MScTech/MTech in Chemistry/Chemical Engineering/Biochemistry or any other branches of Chemical Sciences.
Computational and Data Sciences(CDS)	The areas of interest in CDS broadly comprise Data Science, Machine Learning (esp. Artificial Neural Networks/Deep Learning), Computer Vision/Image Processing, Natural Language Processing, Causal Reasoning with Artificial Intelligence, and Information Retrieval.
Earth Sciences(DES)	Subject area: Seismology Following criteria will be required for Part-time PhD in Seismology: Candidates should have: MS (MSc)/MScTech/MTech in Geology/earth sciences/Geophysics/Applied Geophysics/Computational Seismology/any other branches of earth sciences. Candidates having : 1) experience of computer programming, like C, FORTRAN, MATLAB, PYTHON, SHELL Script etc. 2) practical knowledge of earthquake processing softwares like SAC, SEISAN etc. will be given preference.
Humanities and Socail Sciences(HSS)	The areas will be - * Development Economics * Public Policy * Labour Economics

 

Admission Process:
The admission procedure is structured as follows:

• Candidates are required to complete the online application form accessible via the IISER Kolkata application portal.
• Applicants must identify and include the name of a potential supervisor at IISER Kolkata in their application, following prior discussion and obtaining consent from the proposed supervisor.
• The list of Shortlisted candidates will be notified on the website.
• Candidates must submit the NOC during the Interview.
• Candidates must qualify the PhD selection interview conducted by IISER Kolkata.
• Admission will be subject to the fulfilment of the eligibility requirements as confirmed through the verification of original documents.

For a comprehensive understanding of the program and frequently asked questions, please refer to our FAQ Document: [Click here]
The mandatory No Objection Certificate (NOC) template can be accessed here: [Click here]

Important Dates:

• PhD application portal opens: 16.07.2025
• Application portal closes: 23.07.2025
• Publication of shortlist for the Interview: 24.07.2025
• Selection Interview: 25-28.07.25
• Publication of PhD interview results by: 30.07.2025
• Registration : 31.07.25