SPARC

A SPARC proposal will address a topic in any of the identified twelve themes of SPARC and address a challenging issue of theoretical, experimental and/or translational value. The proposal will be evaluated upon quality / relevance of the area proposed, joint strength and of the teams, proposed outcome & deliverables, available and complementary experimental infrastructure in the institutions. Additional financial support from other sources and its potential to significantly advance knowledge and / or create impact on society. The proposal shall have the following essential and optional components
Each project team will contain at least two international faculty members, two Indian Faculty members and at least two students/researchers pursuing Undergraduate/Postgraduate/PhD or post-doc level from each side. The faculty members may be from one or two eligible institutions in each side. The students/researchers have to be registered as full-time students in their respective institutions. From the Foreign side, it is desirable that the team will be from the same country, though it is not mandatory. Each side will have a Lead Institution (LI) and a Principal and co-Principal Investigator.
The proposal must state clear and measurable deliverables with timelines.
The Budget section should contain Component of MoE funding (under SPARC), Indian
Institution’s Funding, Foreign Institution’s Funding and the clear Deliverables.

At least two visits by the Foreign Faculty to Indian Institutes totaling a combined 2 to 8 months over two years. Each visit can be of duration varying between 15 days to 4 months. During a visit, in addition to carrying out the project related collaboration and research the Foreign Faculty will Co-develop course content and teach one course on the topic of the proposal for 8 to 36 hours depending on the period of stay. The visiting faculty may also conduct workshop that may include hands-on training.
Holding at least one Workshop in India on the topic of the proposal to bring together a larger community of researchers for strengthening the collaborative research component. These may be part of premier international conferences held in India as workshops or special sessions. Participants in these workshops should not be limited only to the institute of the PI and must include students from IISERs/NITs/Sate and Central Universities/ Private Institutes and Colleges, depending on the relevance.
A set of tangible earmarked deliverables of the collaborative efforts on the proposed topic consisting of joint research outcomes including but not limited to two or more of the following:
- Top journal publications
- Text books
- Research monographs
- Patents
- Products
- Scaled pilot plants/ prototypes / demonstrations.
- Course materials

Visits by Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide and in India. Support to Indian research students for long term visits of up to a year to the partner foreign collaborator for carrying out experiments and getting trained in an advanced laboratory facility. Support will also be provided to India students (Undergraduate/ Post Graduate & Research Students) to have hands on training in sophisticated analytical and fabrication facilities. As part of this training, a pre-screening workshop may be conducted in an Indian Institution. Participants in these training program should not be limited only to the institute of the PI and must include researchers/students from IISERs/NITs/State and Central Universities/Private Institutes and Colleges, depending on the relevance. The cost of participation in Hands on “pre-screening workshop” for the selected students will be borne from the project funds for students from centrally funded Institutes. For students from Private institutes, the funding may be borne by the respective Institute/ AICTE.
Support of foreign students to spend time in the Indian Institutes as part-time visiting foreign students.