Patna University (PU) will provide scholarship to 16 postgraduate and doctoral students to boost the insipid research scene in life sciences.

The department of life sciences offers courses in botany, zoology and biotechnology. Ten MSc students would be given Rs 3,000 each per month till their course is over. Six research scholars would get the money for five years.

“The scholarship would be disbursed from the fund of Rs 5 crore provided to the PU life sciences department by the department of biotechnology of the Government of India,” said U.K. Sinha, dean, PU.

The central department provided the funds last year as a part of its ambitious plan to promote interdisciplinary research.

Students who wish to avail of the scholarship would have to take a test. They would also be evaluated on the basis of previous acade- mic performance.

The department admits 72 students at the masters’ level. The number of PhD students admitted varies.

Students are very happy with the scholarship scheme.

“The funds being pumped in would be of great help for students pursuing research, as PU does not provide any funding,” said Indrani Trivedi, studying soil conservation for her PhD.

She added if she got financial support in the form of a scholarship, she would be able to expand the scope of her research and include tissue culture — a technique used in cultivating tissues separate from organisms.

The scholarship would be introduced from this academic session. PU would be the only university in Bihar to provide funding to its students for research.

Apart from the scholarship, the varsity has other plans up its sleeves to promote research. Two state-of-the-art laboratories for botany and zoology and a central instruments lab would be set up for providing better training to postgraduate and PhD scholars.