Danish-Indian Collaboration Program

The program will support Danish-Indian collaborations, which should generate added value for the partners and cutting-edge research of high international standing in Denmark and India. The program is part of the DNRF’s strategy of focusing on few funding mechanisms and strengthening the internationalization of Danish research. The DNRF expects to spend up to 50 million DKK in total on this initiative over a period of several years.

Funding

The center leaders of Centers of Excellence can apply for a grant of 2-4 M DKK, including overhead, for support in 2-3 years. Thus, the Danish-Indian Collaboration Program grants are supplementary grants to the DNRF Center of Excellence grants. The program will make it possible for Centers of Excellence across all disciplines and with different connections with researchers in India to take advantage of the initiative and enforce a bottom-up approach in defining the collaboration activities.

Eligible costs follow the same guidelines as the DNRF budget for a Center of Excellence. Because the program makes mobility and knowledge circulation a priority, approximately 50% of the supplementary DNRF grant should cover salaries and travel expenses related to mobility and research visits at all levels (Ph.D. students, post-docs, and senior researchers).

Please note that the support is for the Danish-side activities only. The Indian partner(s) must fund the Indian-side activities, which should be of a magnitude comparable to the Danish-side activities.

Call for proposals

The deadline for submitting a proposal for the Danish-Indian Collaboration Program was November 23, 2012. Only one proposal per center was allowed.

Read the letter to the center leaders

Download the application form here

The DNRF expects to announce a new call in 2013.

Assessment

The assessment criteria are (not in any order of importance):

• The research quality according to the objective/philosophy of the DNRF Center of Excellence Program
• The added value of performing joint collaborative research between the center and the Indian partner(s)
• The degree of complementary interactions between the center and the Indian partner(s) in answering research questions
• A clear strategy for mobility and knowledge circulation from the center to the Indian partner(s) and vice versa.

The DNRF board will make its decision on the basis of the proposal. A final decision will be made at the board meeting on December 14, 2012.

Follow-up activities

As the Danish-Indian Collaboration Program grants are supplementary grants, follow-up and reporting will be integrated into the annual reports and the annual follow-up meetings of the Centers of Excellence.

Contact research adviser Marianne Gauffriau for more information about the Danish-Indian collaboration program.

See the press release here.