A researcher’s past retractions — withdrawn papers, flawed findings, compromised work — will for the first time factor into whether they receive Indian government funding, under new rules introduced by the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF).
In new guidelines, the ANRF has made it mandatory for grant applicants to declare details and reasons for any publication retractions 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 roughly 64 lakh research papers in 2025 but accounted for 20% of approximately 4,000 global retractions that year, according to India Research Watch’s (IRW) analysis of the Retraction Watch Database. The National Institutional Ranking Framework had already introduced negative scoring for retractions in its 2025 rankings, penalising institutions with high numbers of withdrawn papers.
Under the new ARG rules, the principal investigator (PI) and co-investigators must comply with requirements stated in the guidelines: “The PI and Co-PIs must sign an undertaking that the proposal (or significant portions of the proposal) is not AI generated. PIs and Co-PIs must declare details (and reasons) of publication retractions, if any, in the past five years.”
ANRF added that it “may use a combination of tools to detect use of AI, and/or publication retractions in the past five years, and alert the technical program committee for decisions.”
The foundation said it follows a “zero tolerance” policy for plagiarism; all submissions may undergo third-party plagiarism checks, and any proposal found to contain plagiarised content will be rejected. Any text used verbatim from another source must be identified with quotation marks and an appropriate citation, including use of AI tools.
Established in August 2023 through an Act of Parliament as India’s apex body for scientific research, ANRF aims to promote R&D across universities, colleges and other institutions through 19 different research grant programmes covering mathematical sciences, engineering and technology, environmental and earth sciences, health, agriculture, and scientific and technological interfaces of humanities and social sciences. As of July 2025 (latest available), ANRF has sanctioned 930 projects under these grants, according to data provided by the Centre to Parliament.
While other government bodies like 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 domains, ANRF is positioned as the overarching strategic body for coordinating and scaling high-impact, investigator-driven research nationwide.
While earlier ARG calls required plagiarism undertakings, they did not explicitly mandate retraction disclosures or screening for past retractions. The new rules add a dedicated section on plagiarism, AI-generated content, and retractions.
Achal Agrawal, founder of IRW and among Nature’s top 10 people who helped shape science in 2025 for his work exposing systemic research misconduct in India, said the move will ensure those seeking grants make efforts to maintain good conduct. “ANRF’s rules on retraction will definitely deter misconduct among those who wish to apply for grants and funding. If anyone under-reports their retractions it is easy to cross check and it makes the hidden retractions more suspect. We hope that this policy is implemented by other funding agencies,” he said.
The ARG supports investigator-driven research on complex scientific and societal challenges. Researchers and scientists from recognised Indian academic institutions — public and private universities, national research laboratories, and R&D organisations — can submit pre-proposals on the ANRF website from May 15 to June 10, 2026. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to submit full proposals, which undergo expert panel review. Successful projects can receive up to ₹5 crore for a maximum of five years, covering equipment, manpower, travel, contingency, and consumables.
The new guidelines also carry what ANRF terms “researcher-friendly reforms.” The mandatory 50% cost-sharing requirement for national laboratories — which required national labs or certain collaborating institutions to bear half the project cost, and often acted as a barrier to participation — has been removed. Co-PI requirements have been relaxed as well: previously, projects of ₹1 crore and above required a co-PI from the PI’s own institution; co-PIs from different institutions are now permitted, reducing administrative barriers to collaboration. A proposal may include a maximum of five co-PIs. The PI remains responsible for the project’s successful implementation.
ANRF officials did not respond to HT’s request for comment.
