Supervisor-led Joint Doctorate Scholarship Opportunities – BITS Pilani

Expressions of Interest – open to La Trobe University graduate research supervisors

Please note - this expression of interest is open to La Trobe University supervisors. It is not open to students. 

The ASCRIN call for EOI for joint PhD scholarship funding is now open for expressions of interest and will close on 23 November 2026, with outcomes expected to be announced by mid December 2026. 

What’s on offer: 

As per prior agreements with ASCRIN partners, this year’s ASCRIN call for proposals will look at supporting jointly funded scholarships with BITS Pilani as the home institution

Focus: 

While submissions across all ASCRIN research themes are welcome, in order to increase focus and impact of the collaboration, this year’s round will provide extra weightage points to projects that propose:

• Multi-disciplinary research aligned with UN SDG 2 (Zero hunger – with research focussing on sustainable agriculture and food), UN SDG 3 (Good health and wellbeing – with research focussing on care, health and health-tech). For BITS Pilani submissions, cutting edge AI and/or application of AI to important research questions in the SDGs 2 and 3 will also be well regarded across these priority areas.
• Collaborative proposals where research collaborators from India and Australia are planning to apply for external funding aligned with the project and/or involve collaboration with external Industry / Government partners.

Limited opportunity: 

While supervisors may be involved in more than one proposal, they may only be the lead collaborator (principal investigator / supervisor) on one proposal per ASCRIN JDP partnership

Candidate Identification: 

For BITS Pilani - La Trobe JDP program, a suitable student within their early candidature can be nominated for the submission, but this is not essential and a new student may be recruited at a later date.  

Proposals need the lead collaborators from Australia and India to be qualified to be a principal supervisor in their own institutions.

How to Express Your Interest

Please note - this expression of interest is open to La Trobe University supervisors. It is not open to students. 

Only one submission per project needs to be submitted by the academic team. Choose a principal supervisor at either La Trobe University or BITS Pilani who will be the corresponding investigator and collect the information relating to other supervisors from them, to fill in on their behalf.

1. Register an account (if you do not already have one) - you need to be a principal supervisor at either La Trobe (use your SSO / SAML sign in) or BITS Pilani and you will automatically become the corresponding investigator for the team.
2. Start your submission (you can save it in-progress).
3. Please make sure all details are entered accurately, including contact and endorsement details, so that we can communicate with you about your submission and advise the outcome.
4. When completed, submit your EOI proposal to be reviewed - please note only one submission per project is required to be submitted.

PLEASE NOTE

You may edit your submission after submitting, up until the deadline date.

Upon submission, consider downloading a PDF of the submission to share with all members of the project team for future reference and information, and take note of the project ID for communications with ASCRIN to facilitate quick responses. 

Information session: 

The ASCRIN team will conduct a virtual drop-in information session for BITS Pilani - La Trobe Joint PhD

Friday 16 October 2026, 4.00pm – 5.00pm AEDT / 10.30am – 11.30am IST 

https://latrobe.zoom.us/j/82929558995?pwd=pYpUeFAA1tNSQ9uN0Kj0GK1WXdZvFs.1