Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)’s second call for SPARC Proposals with special emphasis on Humanities and Social Sciences is now open from September 1, 2019 to November 15, 2019.
The Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s Higher Educational Institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian Institutions and the best institutions in the world from 28 selected nations, including Canada, to jointly solve problems of national and/or international relevance.
The expected outcomes include tangible results such as –
- large quantity of high-quality research publications
- solution to key national and international problems
- development of niche courses
- high quality text books and research monographs
- imbibing of best practices from top international academicians and researchers
- strong bilateral cooperation
- improved world reputation and ranking of Indian Institutions
The format for the proposal submission is available at the link: https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/index.php
The proposal is to be submitted under the thrust areas specified by SPARC programme. A joint research project has to be submitted by an Indian Institution/University with participation of a Foreign University/Institute under SPARC for a two-year interaction programme. The project team should contain at least two international Faculty members, two Indian Faculty members and two Researchers pursuing PhD or post-doc level from each side. The Faculty members may be from one or two eligible institutions in each side.
The students have to be registered full-time students or post-docs in their respective institutions. From the foreign side, it is expected that the team will be from the same country. Each side will have a Lead Institution (LI) and a Principal and co-Principal Investigator. Other scheme details are available at the link: https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/sparcpms/UserManual.pdf
Eligibility:
- All Indian Institutions ranked in the overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in the India Rankings (NIRF-2019) are eligible to apply. The list of eligible Indian Institutions is available at the link: https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/indian_institutes.php .
- Canadian Institutions eligible to apply under this scheme are available at the link: https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/foreign_institutes.php
For questions/queries, contact:
Ms. Anju Taneja at anjut@sici.org.in or Ms. Pikee Sharma at pikee@sici.org.in