Indo-Australia Fund for Scientific and Technological Cooperation (Indo-AISRF) Round 13

Deadline: 02-Jul-20

The Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Science & Technology. Government of India, New Delhi and the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources (DISER), Australian Government are providing financial support for joint research activities carried out by Indian and Australian researchers. Indian-Australian research teams are hereby invited to submit Collaborative Research Projects on special call on COVID-19 under Round 13 of AISRF.

The Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF) is a platform for bilateral collaboration in science, jointly managed and funded by the governments of India and Australia.

The objectives of the AISRF are to:

increase the uptake of leading-edge science and technology (S&T) by supporting collaboration between Australian and Indian researchers in strategically focused, leading-edge scientific research and technology projects, and strengthening strategic alliances between Australian and Indian researchers; and
facilitate Australia’s and India’s access to the global S&T system.

Applications are sought for proposals in the Round 13 COVID-19 Collaborative Research Projects grants. This grant opportunity was announced as part of the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund.

The objective of the grant opportunity is to fund short collaborative research projects with tangible outcomes focused on responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The intended outcomes of the grant opportunity are:

bring together leading research institutions and/or industry in both Australia and India currently working on areas relevant to COVID-19 such as vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics
Projects of a mutually beneficial nature whose outcomes contribute to the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Support is provided for collaborative research projects involving Indian and Australian partners.

If you have received AISRF project funding in a previous round, you cannot receive funding for the same activities in this round.

The Indo-Australian S&T Fund is jointly managed by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science and the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The priority areas for collaborative research projects in Round Thirteen of the IndoAustralian S&T Fund are:

Antiviral coatings, other preventive technologies
Data analytics, modelling, Artificial Intelligence applications
Screening and diagnostic testing

All applications for the Indo-Australian S&T Fund must fall within one of this priority area. Applications not related to this area will not be considered.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply for funding under the Indo-Australian S&T Fund, the Indian applicant must:

Seek support for a bilateral collaborative research project in one of the priority areas of research;
Have obtained the agreement of their proposed Australian research partner to undertake the project activities;
Be one of the following ‘eligible organisations’ (or a consortium of eligible organisations):
- Education institution;
- UGC recognized Universities/ Deemed Universities
- Academic Institutes and National Research & Development Laboratories/Institutes
- public sector research agency; or
- private, not for profit, research organisation (Recognised by Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India organisation as S&T organisation)