Request for Proposals: IFA-IFP Creative and Scholarly Projects in India

Deadline: 26-Nov-22

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) in collaboration with French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) invites applications for an IFA-IFP Creative Project and IFA-IFP Scholarly Project, under its Archives and Museums programme which IFA will implement.

The Archives and Museums programme of IFA has been initiated with a two-fold objective: to provide arts practitioners and researchers an opportunity to generate new, critical, and creative approaches for public engagement with archives and museum collections; and to energise these spaces as platforms for dialogue and discourse.

The French Institute of Pondicherry is a Franco-Indian research institute with a strong commitment to the creation and stewardship of research archives across several disciplines. Established under the terms of the Treaty of Cession of French Territories in India and inaugurated on 20 March 1955, the IFP was envisioned at its inception as a centre for Franco-Indian cultural and scientific cooperation. Operating under the joint supervision of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CNRS—the National Centre for Scientific Research, the IFP undertakes research in Indology, Social Sciences, Ecology and Geomatics with a strong focus on interdisciplinary collaborations. The archival collections at IFP have acted as incubators for new questions and inquiries, and, against the idea of archives being frozen in time; they have remained responsive to a changing world.

Funding Information

The project cost should not exceed Rs 2,00,000/-
You may budget for an honorarium of Rs 12,000/- per month subject to a limit of Rs 1,44,000/- for the entire duration of the project. Please note that the total amount is inclusive of the honorarium.

Eligibility Criteria

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) implements Projects under its various programmes. The criteria for eligibility to apply under these programmes are as follows:
- Only Indian nationals can apply. This does not include PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) Card Holders.
- Applicants must have PAN card and one of the following for proof of identity and citizenship – Indian Passport or Aadhar Card or Voter’s ID in India
- Only individuals can apply. Organisations of any kind cannot apply
- If there are collaborators in the projects, they must also be Indian nationals
- Persons who have a past history of financial delinquency with IFA are not eligible
- Persons who have failed to deposit at IFA agreed deliverables from an earlier IFA grant are not eligible
- Persons who have previously received a letter from IFA disallowing them from applying in the future for any reason are not eligible
- More than one individual can apply if they have a joint account. If they do not, then only one among them should apply with the others as collaborators
They seek applications from curators, artists, researchers, writers, performers as well other creative practitioners; and from scholars with background in research and a keen interest in working with archival and museum collections.
For the Creative Project, they encourage applications that can artistically engage with all three collections. However, this is not mandatory and applicants may choose to focus on any of the three collections.
They also encourage applications that demonstrate abilities to think through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches and methodologies for their outcomes.
Since IFP is a physical archive based out of Pondicherry, the Project Coordinators will have to spend considerable amounts of time at the physical archives of IFP during the project period.
Those who are Indian nationals are eligible to apply.