Priority Research Area

:

1. Agricultural Biotechnology including Food S&T.  
2. Pharmaceuticals and Drug development.
3. Clean energy materials and systems.

Goals

:

• To intensify interaction and scientific cooperation between India and ASEAN Member States. 
• To connect existing research projects/networks in India and ASEAN  Member States.
• To enhance human and institutional capacity and research training and development of young scholars.

Project Duration

:

Max of 2 years. Only no-cost extension for a max period of 6 months could be considered based on the technical progress of the project.

Eligibility

:

1. Scientists with an appointment as a regular faculty / researcher at any eligible Indian / ASEAN  Member States institution, holding a Ph.D. degree (MD in case of medical professionals) can apply as Principal Investigator (PI).
2. The maximum age of each project participant must NOT exceed 60 years as on date of submission of the project.
3. The appointment of the PIs and other project participants must be till the end of duration of the project. No request for change of PI/project participants and/or Institute shall be considered in any case after sanction of the project.
4. The project may also include a junior faculty/ scientist or a post-doc. The total number of participants from each partner country should not exceed 2 (two).
5. The PIs who have already completed an ASEAN-India R&D project can apply only after 2 years from date of completion of closure formalities of the already awarded project.

A.   Eligible institutions in India

1. All universities/ academic institutions recognised under Indian Laws by UGC and public funded R&D Institutes/ labs are eligible to apply.
2. Private companies, R&D Labs, NGO’s, Associations/ Consortiums and colleges are not eligible for funding under the scheme.

B.   Eligible institutions in ASEAN Member States

All academic/ research institutions and universities which are eligible and recognised to receive funding from ASEAN Secretariat are eligible to apply. The queries regarding eligibility of ASEAN partner institutions may be cross-checked / verified from ASEAN Secretariat.

Composition of Project teams and duration of exchange visits

:

• The project is necessarily to be developed jointly by the scientists/ researchers in India and partners from ASEAN Member States.
• The project team must comprise of a Project Investigator (PI) from India and PIs from at-least 2 different ASEAN Member States.
• The maximum number of project participants from each participating country must be only two (a lead PI and one junior researcher ie young faculty/scientist or a post-doc).
• Only one visit per year per participant from each participating country is permitted to visit each participating ASEAN Member State by Indian project participants and vice versa by ASEAN project participant to India.
• The duration of each visit can be max of 14 days per year for lead PIs and max of 30 days per year for junior researchers. One visit is defined as a visit by a scientist to the partner country.
• The visit(s) of Indian participants to partner ASEAN MS must not be over-lapping with other Indian partner’s visit and should not be clubbed with other visits.

Grant information

:

The funds under AISTDF are available only in INR. Therefore, budget must be projected only in Indian rupee in accordance with following guidelines-

1. The funding support is available only to support mobility of project participants/ researchers from India to partnering ASEAN MS and vice versa.
2. Some incremental funding ie Rs. 5 Lakh per year for accessories or add-ons to existing equipment, chemicals and consumables etc is also available only to the Indian Partner Institute.
3. Salary for a scientific manpower (one Post-Doc) shall be supported only to Indian partner institute.
4. The over-head charges to the Indian partner Institute/University shall be payable at 5% of the total non-travel budget of the project.
5. General support for mobility of project participants shall be as per following financial norms-

• International airfare by lowest economy class from place of work in sending country to the place of work in receiving country including visa fees, overseas medical insurance, domestic travel connected to international travel etc.
• The local hospitality expenses (lodging, boarding, airport transfers etc) for visiting respective partner country (India to ASEAN MS and vice versa) shall be supported at Rs. 7,000/- per day (all inclusive).
• The entire grant as recommended by the Evaluation Committee and approved by AISTDF shall be released and placed at the disposal of lead Indian Institute in INR.

       6. Around 20 projects shall be supported against this call typically with a grant size of Rs. 35-40 lakh (around USD40,000 – USD48,000) for 2 years duration.

Evaluation and selection

:

The project proposals / applications will be evaluated independently by ASEAN and India on the following evaluation criteria: (not listed in the order of priority)

• Added value of the visits for on-going research on both sides.
• Scientific and technological merit of the proposed exchange activities and of the anticipated outcomes.
• Feasibility of proposed approach.
• Expertise and complementarities of the two laboratories/institutes.
• Qualifications and experience of applicants.
• Opportunities for training and development of young researchers.
• Benefits of the proposed activities for the establishment of research partnerships and institutional links between ASEAN MS and India.
• Potential for follow-on collaborative activities.

Reporting

:

Grant recipients are required to submit a scientific and financial report after each financial year of the project online at AISTDF portal.

How to apply online

:

For online submission of the project proposals the following points may be noted:

• Applicants should first register in AISTDF portal: https://aistic.gov.in/ASEAN/Registrationclick here to register.
• After log-in, applicants are required to fill all the mandatory fields in profile detail section under User Profile, which includes bio data, photo, institute address, etc.
• The details of the R&D proposal ie project title, project summary, keywords, objectives of project, expected output and outcome of the proposal etc needs to be entered at the time of proposal submission.
• Other relevant information of the proposal may be uploaded at specified place as a single PDF file not more than 10 MB.

The Applicants are also required to submit the application online along with the following enclosures:

• CVs of each project participant.
• List of on-going and recent research projects with Indian lead PI.
• A copy of the endorsement letter from the partnering institution.

Submission and application deadline

:

Project proposals must be prepared and submitted jointly by the Indian and ASEAN MS partner scientists and must be submitted only ONLINE at:  https://aistic.gov.in/ASEAN/aistdfCollaborative. The deadline for submission of the complete project is 31^st December 2022 (5 PM IST).

Incomplete proposals and which are not formulated as per guidelines of the announcement shall not be considered in any case.

Contact

(For any further information and/ or questions)

:

In India

Raj Kumar Sharma, Sr Director (Scientist-F) International Cooperation Division,

R. No-1C, S&T Block-1, Technology Bhavan, Department of Science & Technology (Govt of India), New Mehrauli Road,

NEW DELHI-110022

Tel: 011-26537976,

email: sharma_rk@nic.in

In ASEAN

Sectoral Development Directorate,

ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Department

ASEAN Secretariat | 70 A Jalan Sisingamangaraja | Jakarta 12110 Indonesia

Tel. (62 21) 724-3372, 726-2991 Ext. 240

Fax (62 21) 739-8234, 724-3504

Email: Science&TechnologyDivision@asean.org