ICSSR-NSTC (Taiwan) Joint Call for Research Proposals 2025

The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) and National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Taipei, Taiwan jointly signed a memorandum of understanding to encourage bilateral cooperation in the field of social sciences and exchange visits, exchanges of scholars and promote bilateral joint research projects. Under this bilateral agreement, the research proposals are invited for grant for joint research projects between Indian and Taiwanese researchers in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities. The emphasis will be laid on new and emerging themes of mutual importance and strengthening of relationships.

This India-Taiwan (ICSSR-NSTC) bilateral collaborative research project must be jointly discussed and submitted by the project hosts (Principal Investigators) of India and Taiwan. Among them, the Indian host must apply to the ICSSR in accordance with the regulations of the call guideline; the Taiwanese host of their plan must apply to the NSTC for "bilateral agreement expansion’’ “Add-on International Cooperation Research Project".

Eligibility:

Applicants must be employed in a research or academic position in a recognized research or academic institution – either publicly funded university/college, deemed universities recognized by the UGC or a publicly funded research institute or ICSSR research institutes/recognized institutes. They must also hold a PhD or equivalent qualification and have an interest in high quality research which may be evident by past studies, publications and academic background.

Areas of Collaboration:

(1) Economic/ Commerce/ Management/ Business Administration

(2) Sociology and Social Anthropology/ Social Work/ Demography/ Gender Studies

(3) Political Science/International Relations/ Geography/ Public Administration

(4) Psychology/ Education/ Criminology/ Law

(5) Linguistics (literature also included)

(6) Cultural Studies (Arts also included)

(7) Area Studies

(8) History

(9) Buddhist Studies

(10) Philosophy

Grant amount:

Five (5) joint research projects would be supported against the present call. The financial support is available basically for mobility of researchers from each side. Funding for this grant is at a maximum amount of Rs. 12, 00,000 (Rupees Twelve Lakh only) for each project.

Mobility of the Grant:

The visiting party will meet the expenditure on international and domestic (inter-city) air travel. The receiving party will meet the expenditure on local hospitality for boarding, lodging and local ground transportation of the visiting scientists for a specified number of days and persons to be decided by the two parties on a case-by-case basis.

Key dates:

(1) Application period: From March 01, 2024 to May 01, 2024

(2) Completion of Peer-review: August 2024

(3) Result Announcement and approval date: December 2024

(4) The execution period of the joint project: from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026, a period of 2 years (Project Duration)

Key Points:

(1) This joint research project will be peer-reviewed and selected by the Indian side (ICSSR) and Taiwanese side (NSTC) after independent review.

(2) Applications with the following circumstances will not be accepted:

i. The qualifications of the Indian Principal Investigator do not meet the requirements of ICSSR and Principal Investigator of Taiwan do not meet the requirement of NSTC;

ii. The application date exceeds the announcement deadline;

iii. Incomplete application materials;

iv. It is not submitted in accordance with the main points of the call guidelines and the method described in this application form.

(3) The Principal Investigator of both parties shall provide the mid-term/end-of-term "bilateral agreement-type expansion" before/after the end of the annual plan implementation period.

(4) When planning cooperation, the Principal Investigators of both parties shall first agree on the ownership and management of future intellectual property rights and achievements of both parties. Management and operation methods, and when necessary, the relevant project contract can be signed together

(5) Due acknowledgement of support by ICSSR and NSTC should be made in any publication resulting from the joint research projects. 

Applications must be submitted to (Contact Details):

The project proposals completed in all respect must be received by both sides. Proposals submitted unilaterally shall not be considered. Applications must be submitted electronically (and hard copy) in the given application form to ICSSR on or before 1^st May 2024 by the Indian researchers.