On your application, the following number of positions may be requested:
Early Career Fellowship: None.
Intermediate Fellowship: Up to 2 positions, including Postdoctoral Fellows
Senior Fellowship: Up to 4 positions, including Postdoctoral Fellows.
On the fellowship application, the staff categories are: Administrative, PhD Students, Postdoctoral, Technician or Other. Note: only PhD students and Postdoctoral Fellows are provided a travel allowance by the India Alliance. See Travel Allowance
All staff requirements must be adequately justified. In the case of an award, it is at the Selection Committee’s discretion to determine if the number or amount of support requested is appropriate. Applicants are forewarned that they may be asked to revise requests if recommended by the Selection Committee.
With the exception of Postdoctoral Fellows, salary costs sought for support staff should commensurate with the level of skills, responsibilities and expertise necessary to carry out the proposed research. Salary costs sought for support staff should include any increments to which the individual is entitled, together with the costs of expected promotions where appropriate.
For Postdoctoral Fellows requested on the application, the IA has set the salary at Rs 40,000/ month. It is mandatory for the applicant to quote this level of support.
As the employer, the Host Institution is responsible for the contracts of employment of the staff concerned and, consequently, for any redundancy or other compensatory payments that may be required. Work permits, where required, are a matter of direct negotiation between the host institution and the relevant Government of India departments.
The India Alliance will meet the directly incurred costs of materials and consumables required to carry out the proposed Fellowship research.
These costs may include laboratory chemicals and materials (e.g. reagents, isotopes, peptides, enzymes, antibodies, gases, proteins, cell/tissue/bacterial culture, plasticware and glassware, etc.), and photographic supplies.
Funds may be requested to cover the purchase costs of animals, food and maintenance charges (e.g. diet, bedding, disinfectant, disposal bags) and labour costs associated with the care and maintenance of animals used in the research, and for any experimental procedures involved.
In order to ensure that animal experimentation costs are accurate, applicants are advised to complete the relevant table in the application form after consultation with their animal house or biological services manager.
The Institution is required to apply a consistent costing methodology when presenting cost details to the India Alliance.
If Fellows wish to purchase animals or add new animal species, in addition to those already approved by the Selection Committee, they will have to seek formal permission from the India Alliance.
With the exception of Early Career Fellowships, applicants can request funds for items of equipment essential to the proposed research project. The India Alliance would provide funds for shipping and clearance charges but not for customs duty. Equipment maintenance may be requested for up to five years.
The India Alliance does not normally supplement support provided by other funding bodies. However, a contribution from the host institution, or other source, will normally be expected where the application includes a substantial equipment request.
The host institution is required to use the best procurement practices when purchasing equipment funded with India Alliance funds.
Access charges may be requested for the use of equipment or facilities, originally funded by the India Alliance or other sources, once the initial funding period has ended. The use of the equipment/facilities must be essential to the proposed research. Please detail how the charges have been calculated stating the cost per experiment or the percentage of time and number of hours the equipment/facilities will be used for the project.
This list is indicative rather than exhaustive, but is intended to provide guidance on the types of funds that may be requested. Costs should be as specific as possible, and justified in terms of the requirement of the research proposed. These costs may include:
- Specialist publications (not found in institutional libraries). Please specify journals.
- Consultancy fees directly associated with the execution of the research.
- Fieldwork fees for subjects/volunteers and/or expenses incurred by volunteers involved in a research project.
- Computing – including recurrent costs of computing-related items dedicated to the project (e.g. software licences)
- Recruitment and advertising costs for staff employed on the grant.
- Purchase/hire/running costs of project-dedicated vehicles.
- Senior Fellowship applicants may request travel and subsistence funds for short collaborative visits. Visits must be scientifically justified.
- Request for access charges, travel and subsistence costs associated with using synchrotron radiation and neutron sources.
- Removal costs of upto Rs 1 Lakh.
- The cost of printing questionnaires, recruitment material, newsletters, etc. for clinical, epidemiological and qualitative research studies.
The Programme automatically provides the Fellow and each researcher employed on the grant with a standard 'travel to meetings' allowance to attend scientific meetings:
Senior Fellows: Rs 2 Lakh per annum
Early and Intermediate Fellows: Rs 1.5 Lakh per annum
Research staff (PhD students or postdoctoral fellows) employed on the grant: Rs 1 Lakh per annum each.
Requests for additional funds for specific meetings/conferences are not permitted, as the standard 'travel to meetings' allowances are expected to cover all such costs.
Amounts provided on the grant application must be based on current known cost. However, the India Alliance recognizes that unanticipated costs might arise during the tenure of the project. Therefore, in addition to the requested costs, the India Alliance will provide contingency funds called Flexible Funding Allowance as follows:
Early Career Fellowship: Rs 50,000 per annum
Intermediate Fellowship: Rs 1.5 Lakh per annum
Senior Fellowship: Rs 2 Lakh per annum
This may be used at the Fellow's discretion to fund unanticipated costs on their Fellowship. For example:
- To purchase consumables or equipment
- To supplement salaries of support staff on the grant, including provision for discretionary or merit awards
- To pay page charges or other non-Open Access publishing costs directly related to the research carried out on the grant
- Stationary costs including computer consumables.
- Office maintenance
- To cover the PhD (and MSc) fees of individuals employed on the grant e.g. postgraduate research assistants, technicians.
- To cover the costs of formal transferable skills and personal development training courses for the Fellows e.g. in the areas of communication skills, intellectual property rights, project/finance management.
Please note:
1) If Fellows wish to use FFA to purchase animals additional to those listed in the application form, they must first contact the India Alliance to request permission to do so.
2) Charges made by publishers to meet the costs of publishing in open access journals should not be requested on individual grant applications as the India Alliance will provide supplementary funding for these. Other publishing costs (i.e. those not associated with publishing academic papers) will be considered where such activities are integral to the project - for example, where it has been agreed that the results of a clinical trial or epidemiological study should be shared with participants or disseminated more widely to influence policy or change practice.
