Researchers’ past setbacks — retracted papers, flawed results, questionable work — will for the first time impact whether they get funding from the Indian government, under new rules introduced by the Anusandan National Research Foundation (ANRF).
In the new guidelines, the ANRF obliges grant applicants to declare the details and reasons for any withdrawal of publication in the past five years as part of new integrity requirements under its flagship Advanced Research Grant (ARG) programme.
The policy addresses a documented problem: India published 5% of the world’s nearly 64,000 research papers in 2025, but represented 20% of the nearly 4,000 global papers retracted that year, according to an India Research Watch (IRW) analysis of the retraction monitoring database. The National Institutional Rankings Framework had already introduced negative scores for retracted papers in its 2025 rankings, penalizing institutions with large numbers of retracted papers.
Under the new ARG rules, the principal investigator (PI) and co-investigators must adhere to the requirements set out in the guidelines: “The PI and co-investigators must sign an undertaking that the proposal (or significant parts of the proposal) is not the result of artificial intelligence. PIs and co-investigators must declare the details (and reasons) of publication retractions, if any, in the past five years.”
ANRF added that it “may use a range of tools to detect the use of AI and/or retract publications in the past five years, and alert the Technical Program Committee to make its decisions.”
The organization said it has a “zero tolerance” policy for plagiarism; All entries may be subject to third party plagiarism checks, and any suggestion found to contain plagiarized content will be rejected. Any text used verbatim from another source must be identified with quotation marks and appropriate citation, including the use of artificial intelligence tools.
Established in August 2023 by an Act of Parliament as India’s apex body for scientific research, the agency aims to promote research and development across universities, colleges and other institutions through 19 different research grant programs covering mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health and agriculture, and the scientific and technological interfaces of the humanities and social sciences. As of July 2025 (latest available), the agency has approved 930 projects under these grants, according to data submitted by the Center to Parliament.
While other government bodies such as the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) continue to fund research in their fields, the ANRF is positioned as an overarching strategic body to coordinate and scale up high-impact, investigator-led research at the national level.
While previous ARG calls required plagiarism pledges, they did not explicitly mandate disclosure of retractions or examination of past retractions. The new rules add a dedicated section on plagiarism, AI-generated content, and retractions.
The move will ensure those seeking grants make efforts to maintain good behavior, said Achal Agrawal, founder of IRW and one of Nature’s top 10 people who helped shape science in 2025 for his work exposing systemic research misconduct in India. “The ANRF rules on withdrawals will certainly deter misconduct among those who want to apply for grants and funding,” he said. “If anyone reports their withdrawals, they are easy to verify, and this makes hidden withdrawals more suspicious. We hope that this policy will be implemented by other funding agencies.”
ARG supports investigator-led research on complex scientific and societal challenges. Researchers and scientists from recognized Indian academic institutions – public and private universities, national research laboratories, and R&D organizations – can submit advance proposals on the ANRF website from May 15 to June 10, 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit full proposals, which are subject to review by the expert panel. Successful projects can get up to $5 crore for a maximum period of five years, covering equipment, manpower, travel, emergency and consumables.
The new guidelines also carry what ANRF calls “researcher-friendly reforms.” The mandatory 50% cost-sharing requirement for national laboratories – which required national laboratories or some cooperating institution to bear half of the project cost, and which was often an obstacle to participation – has been eliminated. Co-PI requirements have also been relaxed: previously, they were projects $1 Crore and above requires a Co-Principal Investigator from the Principal Investigator’s own institution; Participating principal investigators from different institutions are now allowed, reducing administrative barriers to collaboration. The proposal may include a maximum of five co-researchers. The Principal Investigator remains responsible for the successful implementation of the project.
ANRF officials did not respond to Hizb ut-Tahrir’s request for comment.
