CSIR-CFTRI Senior Project Associate Recruitment 2026

CSIR-CFTRI Senior Project Associate Recruitment 2026: Overview

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) is engaging a Senior Project Associate-I for its food and probiotic research programme in Mysuru. The associate will work on project FIR070407, which studies how human-gut probiotic bacteria use complex non-GOS oligosaccharides. This is a laboratory-intensive, interdisciplinary assignment that connects microbial genetics, carbohydrate chemistry, enzyme science and computational analysis rather than a routine project-support role.

The project is designed to explain carbohydrate-utilisation mechanisms in beneficial bacteria. Your work may move from isolating nucleic acids and modifying bacterial strains to interpreting genomic or transcriptomic results and studying enzyme-substrate interactions. Researchers who can connect wet-lab evidence with analytical and bio-informatics findings will be especially well matched to the assignment.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• Project tenure: The initial engagement is for six months and may continue up to March 2028, depending on project need, funding and performance. It ends earlier if the project itself closes.
• CSIR tenure ceiling: Your combined service as project staff across all CSIR laboratories must not exceed six years. Anyone who has already completed that limit cannot apply.
• Temporary status: This project engagement does not create a claim to a regular CSIR-CFTRI or CSIR post.
• Qualification status: Your required degree result must already be declared. Final-semester and result-awaited applications are not accepted.
• Experience counting: Experience is counted only after you obtained the minimum qualification prescribed for the route under which you apply.
• Shortlisting: CFTRI may use marks, higher qualifications, relevant experience or another committee-approved method when the applicant pool is large.
• Travel support: No TA or DA is paid for attending the interview.
• Current CSIR staff: If you are already working on a CSIR project, a no-objection certificate from your current principal investigator is compulsory. A selected employee must also clear dues and leave the earlier project before joining.
• Conduct: Canvassing or using political or other influence leads to disqualification.

Application Submission Notes

The application is accepted only through the CSIR-CFTRI project recruitment portal. Use an active email address because interview communication goes to the address entered in your form. CFTRI publishes shortlists, results and any corrigendum on its website, so you should monitor it after applying rather than wait for individual correspondence.

• Isolate DNA and RNA and perform PCR, RT-PCR and qPCR experiments
• Construct and validate bacterial mutants using cloning and gene-editing methods
• Analyse gene expression and carbohydrate-utilisation pathways in probiotic strains
• Purify and characterise enzymes involved in oligosaccharide metabolism
• Identify and quantify oligosaccharides using advanced analytical instruments
• Interpret genomic, transcriptomic and bio-informatics datasets
• Integrate laboratory and computational findings into project reports