Deadline: 31-Oct-20
As part of Azim Premji University’s efforts to strengthen and elevate the state of understanding of societal processes and outcomes, they are launching the fifth round of the Research Funding Programme. This program is designed to promote inquiry into areas of particular interest to the Azim Premji Foundation and to explore possible responses for some of them.
The Research Funding Programme is designed to strengthen and supplement existing efforts in these areas. While they are open to any broad consideration within an area, the research should be empirically grounded, and be able to inform practice and policy.
Funding Information
- The research funding budget is linked with the domains under which the application is made.
- For the domains of Education and Allied Areas, Labour, Livelihoods and Employment, and Urban Governance and Sustainability, the research funding budget is between INR 5-20 lakhs. For Local Democracy, and Climate Change Action, the research funding budget is between INR 5-10 lakhs.
Focus Areas
They invite high-quality research proposals that examine the significant questions of public concern in the following areas:
Education and Allied Areas
For research that has direct relevance to the strengthening of the public education system in India, they invite research proposals in the following broad areas:
Student learning in schools, beyond subjects. Illustratively:
- What are schools doing for the social, emotional, physical, and ethical development of students? Are there effective models?
- Inclusive practices in our schools and classrooms
- Understanding the learning gaps in schools that are beyond broad generalizations. Essentially, if students are not learning in our schools why is it so?
Early Childhood Education. Illustratively:
- Status of early childhood education in the country, including its provision, quality, and effective models
- Professional development models – pre-service and in-service – of early childhood education teachers in the country
Impact of COVID-19 on schools and education. Illustratively, its impact on:
- Teaching and learning; including, but not limited to, issues of quality and equity in online modes of education
- Children who have had to discontinue school
- Children with disability and disadvantages.
Labor, Livelihoods, and Employment
Economic growth in India has failed to generate secure, regular, and decent incomes for the vast majority of the workforce. There is an urgent need for fresh thinking that does not bind itself to any ideological pre-commitment except the right of every Indian to lead a secure and dignified life in a just and sustainable way.
The Centre for Sustainable Employment at Azim Premji University aims to foster fresh and creative thinking on this urgent and complex issue. To this end, they invite research proposals in the broad area of labour, livelihoods, and employment including but not limited to:
- Macroeconomics of structural change and employment generation
- Skills and skill development
- Sustainable industrialization and green growth
- Labour laws, informality and contract labour
- Impact of COVID-19 and the associated measures on labour, livelihoods, and employment
Urban Governance and Sustainability
- Proposals aimed at bringing new theoretical insights and data-based understanding of the complex challenges of urban sustainability in India, and research that examines initiatives towards addressing these challenges, that can serve as models for other contexts are invited. They are also interested in funding public use datasets that can be utilized to address critical policy issues in this domain, particularly in areas in which such data is currently inadequate.
- They are also interested in funding public use datasets that can be utilized to address critical policy issues in this domain, particularly in areas in which such data is currently inadequate.
Local Democracy
Despite the Constitutional promise of deepening and widening democratic foundations and development in the country in the form of 73rd and 74th amendments, the overall journey leaves much to be done. Their Centre for Local Democracy supports this journey by way of field engagement to create good practices at scale and research to support these; to build capacity through educational programs, and work with stakeholders to build a conducive ecosystem. The Centre invites research proposals in the following areas that have direct relevance to strengthening local democracy and development:
- Rigorous analysis, including key determinants of good practices of Gram, Block, and Zilla Panchayats in any of the areas of resource mobilization, governance of natural resources, welfare, equity, and social justice.
- Legal analysis of conflicts between Panchayats Acts/Rules, PESA Act/Rules between states and between state and central Acts with respect to Article 243ZF of the Constitution.
- Study of the functioning of the traditional governance systems of the Adivasis and their integration with constitutional local governance structures and processes.
- Study of the challenges faced by Nagar Panchayats in meeting urban aspirations and the resource and capacity gaps.
- Study of the functioning of Nyay Panchayats and other alternative dispute resolutions systems and possibilities of their integration with the mainstream justice delivery system.
Climate Change Action
In their effort to strengthen and elevate action on climate change, the funding in this area is designed to promote increased understanding of the climate crisis in India and to explore possible action and responses to it. they invite high-quality proposals that examine significant questions of public concern in the following areas:
- Climate change education and outreach
- Climate change policy and action
- Climate change adaptation and mitigation
While they are open to any broad consideration within the area of climate action, proposals that focus on other aspects of sustainability, such as pollution, waste and ecology without establishing a strong link to climate change will not be considered. Proposals should be empirically grounded and be able to directly inform and engage with education and outreach, policy or practice. Successful projects must have a strong component of action in some form; projects that are solely research-focused will not be considered in this call. Collaborative research applications are encouraged.
Who can apply?
- Applications are invited from individuals or teams affiliated with centers of vital research within academic institutions, non-profit organizations, for-profit organizations, as well as the Government, in principle.
- They encourage scholars and researchers in the fields of education, development practice, public policy, economics, political science, sociology, anthropology, history, creative arts, media, and the sciences to submit proposals.
- This call for proposals is for researchers external to Azim Premji Foundation. Employees of the Azim Premji Foundation are not eligible to apply.
Application Process
Interested applicants must submit the following via the online portal which will be open from Sep 15, 2020:
- The completed online application form available on the portal
- A short concept note in not more than 1200 words
- CVs of all collaborating investigators
Applications for the research funding under each broad area/domain can be accessed by clicking the link at the bottom of the respective page.
For more information, visit https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/research-funding-programme-2020.aspx