Organization of International and National Seminars / Conferences in India

1. INTRODUCTION

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.

1.1 The broad disciplines of study, within the domain of social sciences, are:

(i) Sociology and Social Anthropology;
(ii) Political Science / Public Administration;
(iii) Economics;
(iv) International Studies;
(v) Social Geography and Population Studies;
(vi) Commerce and Management;
(vii) Social Psychology;
(viii) Education;
(ix) Social Linguistics / Socio-Cultural Studies
(x) Law / International Law
(xi) National Security & Strategic Studies;
(xii) Other allied Social Science disciplines (Library Science, Social Work, Media Studies, Modern Social History, Health Studies, Gender Studies and Environmental Studies, Energy Studies, Diaspora Studies, Area Studies, Sanskrit-Society & Culture, etc.) to promote interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research.

1.2 Categories

Seminar proposals may fall under the following three categories:

1.2.1 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.

1.2.2 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.

1.2.3 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.

2. ELIGIBILITY

2.1 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.

2.2 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.

2.3 An individual applicant who had been given grant to organize National/International Seminars can apply only after a gap of two financial year.

3. HOW TO APPLY

3.1 Applications are received online throughout the year.

3.2 The applications should be submitted at least three months before the due date of the Seminar/Conference.

3.3 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.

3.4 Seminar proposals and the final proceedings should be either in English or Hindi.

4. PROCEDURE FOR AWARD

4.1 Applications are initially scrutinised by the ICSSR Secretariat.

4.2 Thereafter the Expert Committee will select the meritorious proposals.

4.3 The recommendations of the Expert Committee are then placed before the Research Committee/Council for its final approval.

5. DURATION AND VALUE

5.1. National Seminar: Maximum upto Rs. 5 lakhs

5.2. International Conference: Upto Rs.10 Lakhs.

5.3. Collaborative Seminar: Rs. 5 to 10 Lakhs

5.4 The actual sanctioned amount will, however, depend on the quality of the proposal, importance of the theme, seminar location and number of participants as decided by the Expert Committee.

5.5 Financial Allocation The seminar organizers should send budget estimates under the following permissible heads:

6. RELEASE OF GRANT

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.

7. MONITORING

7.1 The ICSSR may depute an Officer/Observer to oversee the quality of the seminar/conference.

8. CONDITIONS

8.1 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.

8.2 The theme of the seminar/conference must be within purview of social sciences as defined in 1.1 above and should be focused, coherent and realistic in their coverage and scope.

8.3 The academic background of the convener and paper presenters must be in conformity with the theme of the proposed seminar/conference.

8.4 The names of the resource persons and the topics of the presentation to be made in the seminar should be clearly defined.

8.5 The Concept Note must specify (a) the sub-themes (b) the research questions being addressed, and (c) possible contribution/outcome of the seminar/conference to the existing body of social science research.

8.6 Application should highlight the impact of the seminar for the society and nation in 500 words each.

8.7 The ICSSR may send an observer/Resource Person to the seminar/conference to get an impression report about the event.

8.8 The seminar requests for financial assistance upto Rs.1 Lakh should be sent to the ICSSR Regional Centers of respective regions.

8.9 The applicant/institution should inform the Council about any other financial assistance received for the seminar.

8.10 The grantee organization shall be liable to refund the entire grant amount together with the interest @ 10% from the date of encashment of the cheque in case the event did not take place within the stipulated period or the financial year for which the grant had been released.

8.11 The institute may appropriate expenditure from one sanctioned sub-head to another subject to a maximum of ten per cent in either cases at the time of submission of audited statement of accounts. Any re-appropriation beyond ten per cent shall require the prior approval of the ICSSR.

8.12 The Council reserves the right to reject any application without assigning any reason. It is also not responsible for any postal delays/loss.

8.13 Incomplete applications in any respect shall not be considered.

8.14 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.

8.15 The final authority related to the interpretation of the guidelines or any issue left is vested with the ICSSR.

8.16 ICSSR follows Government of India Rules & Directives with regard to SC, ST and Persons with Benchmark Disability categories.

9. COMPLETION OF THE EVENT

On completion of the event, the scholar should submit the following:

9.1 Two hard bound copies of the seminar/conference proceedings consisting of full papers and lectures.

9.2 Audited Statement of Accounts and Utilization Certificate in GFR 12 A form. In case of central universities, AC/UC signed by the finance officer is acceptable. For all other institutions/universities, the AC/UC should be countersigned by a chartered accountant.

9.3 The seminar/conference Director will be responsible to collect and compile revised papers/transcription of speeches within two months of completion of the seminar/conference and send it to ICSSR in publishable format along with group photographs, banner and certificate.

10. OBLIGATION OF THE AFFILIATING INSTITUTION

10.1 The forwarding institution, through which ICSSR grant will be administered, has to provide, an undertaking to administer and manage the grant, as per the ICSSR terms and conditions and provide logistical support for the execution of the grant under the format given in the approval/sanction letter.

10.2 The institution should ensure that the convener of the seminar submits a detailed report within sixty days after the Seminar/Conference.