QIF 2026 India

2026 India Program Details

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. proudly announces the launch of Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship 2026-2027 program for selected Indian universities. Each winning team (up to 2 students and 1 faculty member) will receive a financial award for the academic year 2026-27, plus assignment of a Qualcomm researcher(s) as a mentor to facilitate close interaction with Qualcomm.

The Program is sponsored by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. headquartered at 5775 Morehouse Drive, San Diego, CA 92121, U.S.A. (“Sponsor”)

Application Process
Participating Universities
Areas of Interest
Timeline

Submissions will be open from March 2026. Template is provided on this website for proposal submission by the teams.

The team can be comprised of up to 2 students, wherein at least one student member of the team has to be enrolled as a Masters (M.S. / M.Tech.), Dual degree (B.Tech. + M.Tech/M.S.) or Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering or Computer Science department (or related department) for the entire 2026-27 academic year. In case of dual degree, the student should have completed his/her bachelor’s degree requirements by the end of 2025-2026 academic year. A second student team member is optional and may even be a final year under-graduate, i.e., enrolled in the final year of the under-graduate program in 2026-2027. Each student on a team is an “Entrant” and needs to be enrolled as a full- time student in one of the participating institutes for the entire 2026-27 academic year. Also, each team must have one or more faculty advisors supporting the proposal and all the team members, and the faculty advisor(s) should be from the same institute. The Masters or PhD entrants from each team may elect to choose ideas from their on-going or planned research and/or thesis projects in accordance with their university policies.

Each team shall submit an innovation proposal(download the template) that must include the following:

  • Three page innovation proposal (plus optional page for bibliography/references)
    • Introduction and problem definition
    • Innovation proposal and relation to the state of the art
    • The one-year horizon of the project, even if the proposal is a multi-year project
  • Letter from one or more faculty members recommending the innovation including:
    • Why the proposal is innovative
    • Why the proposal is important
    • Why the current team is likely to succeed in their proposal
  • Each student's Curriculum Vitae
  • Signed agreement form by the team members and the faculty advisor (acknowledging the official rules of Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship program in India). Download the official rules, and sign at the marked location in the rules document thus agreeing to the competition rules.
  • Student signed and completed FCPA (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act) form. (Download the Student-FCPA form)
  • University FCPA form must be filled and signed by someone who does not have a financial interest in the Fellowship Program (HOD or Dean of the Institute). Failure to provide this form by the due date will result in disqualification. The same form can be utilized for multiple teams if represented by the same faculty. (Download University-FCPA form)
Incomplete submissions will not be considered for the fellowship.

SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE IN A ZIP FILE. THE SUBMISSION SHOULD BE MADE THROUGH AN ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL, FOR CONSIDERATION IN THE QIF 2026 INDIA PROGRAM. THE ONLINE SUBMISSION PORTAL WILL BEGIN ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FROM MARCH 13, 2026.

See FAQs for more details.

 

Winners will be selected through a multi-stage process:

  1. Idea selection for presentation: Applications must be submitted online by the specified deadline (see Timeline tab). All proposals will be reviewed internally by a team of Qualcomm researchers. A subset of teams will be selected as Program Finalists and notified according to the timelines mentioned in the Timelines tab of this website. Selected (“finalist”) teams will be invited to make a virtual presentation of the research proposal described in their Application to a judging panel.
  2. Final proposals selection: Each selected (“finalist”) team must prepare an online presentation for the judges. The format of the finalist presentation will be provided at a later date. The presentation generally includes:
  • The proposal idea
  • The differentiating factors from state of the art
  • The execution plan / strength of the team

At least twelve winning teams will be chosen from this pool of selected teams after they present to the judging panel.

All QIF-related information will be announced on this webpage. Please check back regularly for updates.

 

Faculty & Mentor

In addition to the faculty advisor(s) guiding the fellowship research, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. will help with assigning mentor(s) to facilitate periodic interaction opportunities with Qualcomm Research.

 

Funding Renewal Opportunity

The QIF India 2026 winning proposals will be re-evaluated in Apr/May 2027 in the form of a project presentation, with at least one team being granted a funding renewal from Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

 

More Info?

Do you need further Information? Please direct your questions to: [email protected]

Fellowship Winners and Finalists

The Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship began in 2009, and has continued to grow with the addition of more universities, more candidates, and expansion to our research centers internationally. Take a look at a list of all our fellowship winners and finalists from years past:

Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Our leading-edge AI, high performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity deliver proven solutions that transform major industries. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.

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