Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) at Manipal in Karnataka has been selected as one of only three Indian host institutions for the US-India TRUST Fellowship for the 2026-27 academic cycle. The 12-month fellowship will bring postdoctoral researchers and early career faculty from leading American institutions to work in India from August 2026 to July 2027. The announcement places MAHE alongside the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and the Indian Institute of Science Bengaluru in a new public private partnership for strategic technology research.
What Is the US-India TRUST Fellowship?
The US-India TRUST Fellowship is a 12-month research fellowship that brings American postdoctoral researchers and early career faculty to premier Indian institutions for collaborative work in critical technologies. TRUST stands for Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology, the technology cooperation framework announced by India and the United States on 13 February 2025.
The fellowship directly supports the TRUST framework. That framework was launched jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump to push government, university and industry collaboration in areas such as defence, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, biotechnology, energy and space. It builds on the earlier Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology, known as iCET, with a stronger focus on joint creation of technology rather than only buying and selling equipment.
The 2026-27 cycle is the founding cycle of the fellowship. It will run from August 2026 to July 2027 and will support up to 20 fellows from leading American institutions. The United States Ambassador to India, Sergio Gor, launched the fellowship in Bengaluru in early September 2026 during the American mission’s National Day reception held to mark 250 years of American independence. Leaders of MAHE, IIT Madras and IISc Bengaluru joined the founding sponsors on stage to receive certificates recognising their role as hosts.
Host Institutions and Supporting Partners
The US-India TRUST Fellowship is organised as a public private partnership. The US Consulate General in Chennai facilitates the programme and provides diplomatic and logistical coordination. Academic hosting and research supervision are handled by the three Indian partner institutions, while private philanthropy provides the core funding.
The three host institutions for 2026-27 are the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) at Manipal, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) at Chennai and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bengaluru. The Office of Global Engagement at IIT Madras serves as the administrative hub for applications, and IISc and MAHE manage their own host faculty linkages and laboratory placements. This combination brings together a leading private research university, a leading engineering institute and the country’s foremost science research institute.
Funding comes from two founding sponsors. These are the Pratiksha Trust, associated with Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, and Mazumdar Shaw Philanthropy, founded by Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Their support covers fellow stipends and programme costs, which allows the fellowship to operate outside routine government grants and link academic research with industry interest in strategic sectors.
Research Areas and Fellowship Support
The fellowship supports research in seven strategic technology fields that both countries have identified as priorities for future growth and security. Fellows must propose a project that fits directly within one of these fields and will work with an Indian host faculty member in a relevant laboratory or department.
| Research Field | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Artificial Intelligence | Machine learning systems, data centres, computing access and AI applications |
| Semiconductors | Chip design, fabrication linkages and electronics supply chains |
| Quantum Computing | Quantum systems, communication and advanced computing methods |
| Biotechnology | Life sciences research, pharma innovation and health technologies |
| Energy | Clean energy systems, storage and energy security technologies |
| Space | Space science, satellite systems and related applications |
| Defence | Defence technologies developed within approved regulatory controls |
Eligibility is open to PhD holders, postdoctoral researchers and early career faculty members from leading American institutions. Applicants must submit an academic CV with top publications, a research plan of two to three pages and, where possible, a consent letter from a host faculty member at MAHE, IIT Madras or IISc. Preference is given to American citizens who have not worked in India before. Applications for the 2026-27 cycle closed on 30 June 2026, with IISc extending its window to 7 July 2026, and selections were processed on a rolling basis.
Selected postdoctoral fellows receive a monthly stipend of $1,650 for the full 12 months. The package also includes complimentary in-campus housing and meals, health and medical insurance from the host institution, one round trip economy airfare between the fellow’s American city and Chennai, Bengaluru or Manipal, a contingency research grant of up to $2,000, and visa and on-ground support. Exceptional candidates considered for an early career faculty track at IIT Madras can be offered a Visiting Faculty position equivalent to Assistant Professor with a consolidated stipend of $3,650 per month.
What Is an Institution of Eminence?
An Institution of Eminence is a special status given by the Ministry of Education to selected Indian universities to help them become world class teaching and research institutions with greater academic and administrative freedom.
The Institution of Eminence (IoE) scheme was announced in the Union Budget of 2016 and notified through University Grants Commission rules and guidelines in 2017. The plan was to select ten public and ten private institutions and give them an enabling regulatory setup so they could enter the top 100 in respected world rankings over time. Selection is done on the recommendation of an Empowered Expert Committee and the University Grants Commission, known as UGC.
Public institutions declared as IoE can receive up to ₹1,000 crore over five years, in addition to their normal funding. Private institutions such as MAHE receive no extra government grant under the scheme, but they gain important freedoms. These include freedom to fix fees with a need blind admission promise supported by scholarships and loans, freedom to admit up to 30 percent extra foreign students over the domestic intake, freedom to set curricula and course structures, freedom to hire foreign faculty on contract, and freedom to enter academic partnerships with foreign universities ranked in the global top 500 without separate government approval. In return, private IoE universities must maintain a corpus fund, meet faculty student ratios, publish regularly in peer reviewed journals, report progress every year and remain ranked in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) and an international ranking.
MAHE Manipal: Profile of the Host Institution
MAHE stands for Manipal Academy of Higher Education. It is a private Deemed to be University, which means it is an institution that is not originally a university but has been granted university status by the central government on the advice of the UGC under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, allowing it to award its own degrees.
MAHE traces its roots to 1953, when educationist T. M. A. Pai founded Kasturba Medical College at Manipal in Udupi district of Karnataka, India’s first self financing private medical college. The Manipal Institute of Technology followed in 1957. The group of institutions was declared a Deemed to be University in June 1993. In October 2020, the Ministry of Education declared MAHE an Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University, making it one of only four private institutions to hold that status along with the Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, O. P. Jindal Global University and Shiv Nadar University.
MAHE is headquartered in the university town of Manipal and operates campuses at Manipal, Mangaluru, Bengaluru and Jamshedpur in India, with an offshore campus at Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. It teaches more than 35,000 students from over 60 countries through about 300 programmes across health sciences, engineering, management, communication, humanities, law and social sciences. MAHE holds NAAC A++ grade accreditation and was ranked 4th among universities in India in NIRF 2024 and 14th overall, with its dental college ranked 2nd, pharmacy college 8th and medical college 9th in their respective categories. In global tables it was placed in the 901 to 950 band in QS World University Rankings 2025. The Vice Chancellor of MAHE is Sharath K. Rao.
Significance for India US Science Collaboration
The selection of MAHE widens the geography of high end India US research beyond Bengaluru and Chennai. While IISc and IIT Madras anchor the Bengaluru and Chennai science clusters, MAHE brings strength in health sciences, pharmaceutical research, engineering and applied interdisciplinary work from coastal Karnataka. This spread allows American fellows to access different laboratory systems, hospital networks and student talent pools within one fellowship.
The fellowship also creates a full year model of cooperation. Short visits and joint workshops often end without lasting output. A 12-month placement inside an Indian laboratory supports joint problem setting, daily experimental work, co-authored publications, patent filings and early steps toward start-ups and commercial use. The stated goals of the programme are to build long term partnerships between American and Indian faculty, produce publications and patents, and move ideas toward commercialisation in secure supply chains.
For India, the programme strengthens human capital links in technologies where skilled researchers are in short supply globally. For the United States, it gives early career researchers direct exposure to India’s research scale, cost effective innovation methods and large data and clinical resources. The link with the expanded American commercial presence in Bengaluru also connects laboratory work with market pathways, though work in defence and space remains subject to export control and security rules in both countries.
Key Takeaways
- MAHE Manipal was selected as one of only three Indian hosts for the US-India TRUST Fellowship 2026-27, along with IIT Madras and IISc Bengaluru.
- TRUST stands for Transforming the Relationship Utilizing Strategic Technology, the India US framework announced on 13 February 2025.
- The fellowship runs for 12 months from August 2026 to July 2027 and will host up to 20 American postdoctoral researchers and early career faculty.
- Selected postdoctoral fellows receive a monthly stipend of $1,650, plus housing, insurance, airfare and a research grant of up to $2,000.
- MAHE was declared an Institution of Eminence Deemed to be University in October 2020 after receiving Deemed University status in June 1993 with roots going back to 1953.
