Sponsoring Seminars/Conferences in India is a major strategy of ICSSR to promote social science subjects. They provide opportunities to researchers and academicians to exchange views and opinions, address and debate research questions on policy relevant issues and generate academic research output on important social problems. While the Council itself organises a few seminars, most of its support is responsive in nature where partial financial assistance is provided to academic institutions for organising national and international seminars in all social science subjects.
Categories
Seminar proposals may fall under the following three categories:
National Seminar : The proposals should be well-conceived on themes of significant social science concerns inviting broad, interdisciplinary and national level participation. Such seminars should involve participation of scholars from within India. Preference will be given to the themes of current national and international importance with significant policy implications.
International Conference: The proposal should be well-planned and justify the need for the international conference on research priorities and issues with an international perspective. It should involve confirmed participation of significant number of foreign scholars as resource persons and/or paper contributors.
Collaborative Seminar: ICSSR also considers proposals or pro-actively seeks collaborations for joint seminars on policy-oriented/socially relevant issues with government departments or reputed research organisations with social science research orientation.
Eligibility
- The organizing institution, to which the grant shall be released be from ICSSR Regional Centres, ICSSR Research Institutes, ICSSR Recognised Institutes, Institutes of National Importance as defined by the Ministry of Education (MoE), UGC Recognized Indian Universities/Deemed Universities/Institutions/Colleges under (2) F / 12(B) etc. And Social Science Associations who fulfils the conditions such as (a) proper registration, (b) audited statement of accounts for last three years, and (c) life membership of minimum 100.
- Regular faculty members having a Ph.D degree can apply as Convener/Co-Convener of the seminar/conference. Ph D/PDF scholars are not eligible to apply as Convener/Co-Convener. However, they can be permitted to be part of the organizing committee.
- An individual applicant who had been given grant to organize National/International Seminars can apply only after a gap of two financial year.
Duration And Value
- National Seminar: Maximum upto Rs. 5 lakhs
- International Conference: Upto Rs.10 Lakhs.
- Collaborative Seminar: Rs. 5 to 10 Lakhs
Application Procedure
- Applications are received online throughout the year.
- Applications must be submitted through our website.
- The applications should be submitted at least three (3) months before the due date of the Seminar/Conference.
- After submitting online application, a hard copy of the same, along with all enclosures, must be sent to: In-charge, NIS Division, Indian Council of Social Science Research, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067.
Important Points
Instalment details
The grant will be released in two instalments. The 1st Instalment of 75 percent will be released after the award of the proposal and receipt of the Grant-in-Aid Bill. The 2nd and final instalment of 25 percent will be released upon receipt of seminar/conference proceedings (2 hard bound copies) along with audited Statement of Accounts and Utilization Certificate in GFR 12 A form.
Monitoring
The ICSSR may depute an Officer/Observer to oversee the quality of the seminar/conference.
Research outcome
The organizer should exhibit an interest clearly that they intend to publish proceedings of the seminar/conference in the form of a book/edited volume papers in journals with due acknowledgement to ICSSR.
Post sanction requests
The seminar/conference coordinator who do not submit the statement of accounts and utilization certificate in the proper format along with the proceedings will be debarred from applying for the grant.
