Government of India

General Description:

India has been the dialogue partner for ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) since 1992. In 2012, on the occasion of 20th anniversary as dialogue partner, India-ASEAN celebrated commemorative Summit and declared enhancement of its relations to strategic level.
The ASEAN Member States are as below-

1. i.Brunei
2. ii.Cambodia
3. iii.Indonesia
4. iv.Lao PDR
5. v.Malaysia
6. vi.Myanmar
7. vii.Philippines
8. viii.Singapore
9. ix.Thailand
10. x.Vietnam

ASEAN-India Science, Technology and Innovation cooperation started formally in 1996 with establishment of ASEAN India S&T working Group on Science and Technology (AIWGST). Initially, the collaborative ASEAN-India S&T activities were supported through ASEAN India Fund (AIF) but in 2008, Government of India established a dedicated fund viz ASEAN India S&T Development Fund (AISTDF) to support R&D projects and associated project development activities. The total budget of AISTDF is an equivalent amount of 5 Million USD in INR. This amount of 5 Million USD is jointly shared by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Department of Science & Technology (DST).
The Department of Science & Technology (Govt. of India) is the nodal Department for execution and implementation of ASEAN-India S&T Cooperation program from Indian side.

The Plan of Action of the ASEAN-INDIA PARTNERSHIP FOR PEACE, PROGRESS AND SHARED PROSPERITY (2021-2025) to implements the goals and objectives of the ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity and the Vision Statement of the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit was adopted by the Leaders of ASEAN and India. Through the implementation of this Plan of Action, ASEAN and India will work towards supporting the ASEAN Community building and integration process including the ASEAN Community's for a politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible and a truly people-oriented, people-centered and rules-based ASEAN, narrowing the development gap and enhancing ASEAN Connectivity. Both sides will also further promote cooperation in addressing common and emerging challenges and enhance coordination in other international fora on issues of common concern to contribute to overall peace, stability and prosperity.

The main objectives of ASEAN-India Science, Technology and Innovation cooperation are based on following principles-

• Encourage and promote cooperation in science, technology and innovation, including through joint research activity, and development on cross-sectoral areas such as health, communicable and emerging infectious diseases, environmental management, climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, agricultural technologies, alternative energy, biodiversity, food processing, advanced materials for development of value-added products, and space technology and applications;


• Encourage and promote cooperation in biotechnology including through capacity building and joint research and development for mutual benefit;


• Undertake activities and develop program / projects under the ASEAN-India Science and Technology Development Fund;

In order to support collaborative Research & Development (R&D) and to facilitate sharing of advance research facilities among researchers of ASEAN MS and India, India and ASEAN agrees to institute the scheme "ASEAN-India Collaborative R&D Program".

The following types of proposals shall not be considered:

• ASEAN and India project proponents who already have an existing ASEAN-India collaborative project
• Purely individual visits / training programme;
• Organisation of Seminars / Workshops or participation in a Conference / Congress.

Priority research areas:

The priority areas for present call is below:

• Agriculture Biotechnology including Food S&T
• Pharmaceuticals and Drug development
• Clean energy materials and systems

Goals:

• To intensify interaction and scientific cooperation between Indian 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 2 years. No cost extension for a max period of 6 months could be considered based on the technical progress of the project.

Eligibility:

Scientists with an appointment as a regular faculty / researcher at any eligible Indian / ASEAN MS institution, holding a Ph.D. degree (MD in case of medical professionals) can apply as Principal Investigator (PI).
The maximum age of each project participant must NOT exceed 60 years as on date of submission of the project.

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.

The appointment of the PI's and other project participants must be till the end of duration of the project. No request for change of PI / Project participant and /or institution shall be considered in any case after sanction of the project.
The project may include a junior faculty/ scientist or a post-doc. The total number of participants on each participating country should not exceed 2(two).

Eligible institutions in India:
All Universities/ Academic Institutions recognised under Indian Laws by UGC, Publicly funded R&D Institutes/ Labs are eligible to apply.
Private companies/ R&D Labs, NGO's and associations/ consortiums are not eligible for funding under the scheme.

Eligible institutions in ASEAN MS:
All Academic/ Research Institutions and Universities which are eligible and recoganised to receive funding from ASEAN Secretariate are eligible to apply. The queries regarding eligibility of ASEAN partner institutions may be cross-checked / verified from ASEAN Secretariat.

Composition of Project team and duration of 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 PI's from at-least 2 different ASEAN Member States.
• The maximum number of project participants from each 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 MS by Indian project participants and vice versa by ASEAN project participants to India.
• The duration of each visit can be max 14 days per year for lead PI's 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 / funds 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. 5lacs 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 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 @5% of the total non-travel budget of the project.
5. General support for mobility of project participants shall be support 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 Rs. 7,000/- per day (all inclusive)
     
6. 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.
7. Around 20 projects shall be supported against this Call typically with a grant size of Rs. 35-40 lakh 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 ongoing 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.

Submission:

Project proposals must be prepared jointly by the Indian and ASEAN MS partner scientists and must be submitted only ONLINE (click here)

• Applicants should first register in ASEAN online portal click 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.
• Some of the details of proposal like Project Title, Project summary, Keywords, Objectives of project, Expected output and outcome of the proposal etc have to be entered at the time of proposal submission.
• Other relevant information of the proposal has to be uploaded as a single PDF file, not more than 10 MB

• C.V's of each project participant
• List of on-going and recent research projects with Indian lead PI  (Format for list of ongoing and recent research projects)  Download
• A copy of the the endorsement letter from the partnering institution  (Format for endorsement letter from partnering institution)  Download

Submission and Application deadline:

Project proposals must be prepared and submitted jointly by the Indian and ASEAN MS collaborators and must be submitted only ONLINE. The deadline for submission of the complete project is 31st 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:

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 [at] asean [dot] org