The British Council and IIT Roorkee under the Operational Alliance Agreement dated July 5, 2019 collaborated for a project named Newton Bhabha Fund-PhD Placement Programme. The key objective of the PhD Placement programme is to facilitate the capacity building of individuals and create sustainable, long-lasting links between India and the UK through PhD placements, and partnerships. The British Council India, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and Indian Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) sponsored the Newton Bhabha Fund. The programme is being implemented in India since 2014 under STEM and Life Sciences subjects.
22 scholars were nominated by IIT Roorkee and 11 are chosen by the selection committee and announced by the British Council in January 2020. Following are the IIT Roorkee scholars who are awarded the Newton Bhabha Fund for 2019-2020 PhD Placement Programme:
| Sl. | Name of the Student | UK Host Institute |
| 1. | Dhaarna | University of the West of England, Bristol |
| 2. | Digvijay Babasaheb Patankar | University of Oxford, Oxford |
| 3. | Kuladeep Kumar Sadevi | Coventry University, Coventry |
| 4. | Rahul Kumar | University of Glasgow, Glasgow |
| 5. | Rupam Gogoi | Cranfield University, Cranfield |
| 6. | Shadman Hasan Khan | National Oceanography Centre, Southampton |
| 7. | Shubham Tiwari | Cranfield University, Cranfield |
| 8. | Sourabh Dixit | The James Hutton Institute, Aberdeen |
| 9. | Aradhya Saini | The University of Sheffield, Sheffield |
| 10. | Aalok Kumar | University of Sussex, Brighton |
| 11. | Harshita Singh | University of Nottingham, Nottingham |
One foreign awardee scholar will be hosted by IIT Roorkee under this programme:
| Sl. | Name of the Student | UK Home Institute |
| 1. | David Pryce | University of Exeter, Exeter |