Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute

Action Research Project Grants (ARPG) 2011-12 (CLOSED)

The Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (Shastri) is a unique bi-national non-profit organization that builds academic and cultural relationships between India and Canada by providing programs and services that will enable, facilitate and sustain bi-national dialogue, understanding and interaction. More specifically, Shastri:

• Enables and facilitates linkages as a bi-national network of leading academic institutions and knowledge partners.
• Invests in students and researchers for knowledge and skills enhancement.
• Collects and disseminates practical information, data, and research findings with a renewed emphasis on international development and information on higher education in India and Canada

Based upon this mandate Shastri with funding assistance from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) is pleased to announce the ‘Call for Applications’ for the Action Research Project Grants (ARPG) with a specific objective of supporting applied and participatory research to find local solutions that will have lasting impacts on communities in India by improving the human condition. The overall goal of the ARP is to generate knowledge about developmental needs in India that are to lead to specific interventions.

With the above objectives, Shastri wishes to develop an approach to research on poverty alleviation, which views poverty in its totality. Shastri believes that there is a need for society to recognize that the needs of economically disadvantaged people go beyond adequate income and other basic requirements of life such as food, health, education and shelter, and encompass other areas such as justice, equality, women empowerment, good governance, human rights, healthy environment, security, culture, opportunity for creative and aesthetic pursuits, etc. Applied research should help to bring focus on this reality.

From the above perspective, ARPG seeks to support action research initiatives that are selected in line with MDGs, CIDA’s priority themes and India’s Approach Paper to the 12th Plan in the following areas – including causes, nature and ways of alleviating poverty.

1. Sustainable/community-based agriculture – it includes:

• Research and innovation related to organic agriculture
• Innovative food security models in India which are able to bring together several MDGs such as gender equity, ecological sustainability and poverty-reduction
• Topics from India’s Approach Paper to the 12th Plan Value added agriculture; food security and public distribution; agriculture and allied activities cutting across primary and secondary sectors.

2. Climate Change and Clean Energy

• Development and provision of sustainable energy for rural regions, including the identification of appropriate technologies, low cost approaches that use local resources (solar, wind, biomass, etc.)

3. Gender Equality

In order to be relevant to Indian policy debates, all the research must be able to integrate the dimension of inclusive growth, as this is the major policy concern in India. All projects should therefore explicitly demonstrate how the project will deal with inclusive growth.

Shastri expects that the research themes submitted, will be demand-based. In other words, the research ideas should be based on the needs of the individuals where the research will take place and not from an assumption that the needs are there – in one way or other should originate from those for whom the research projects are being undertaken, i.e. “the disadvantaged”. Thus community-level action research projects will be a very useful contribution to ARPG as those projects are expected to follow a “bottom-up” process (i.e. “participatory research”). Accordingly the target community will be active in the research process. The output of the research should be of direct use to those individuals that are economically challenged or should be of help to them, indirectly, through its use by policy makers, either in the government or in the non-governmental sectors. The research project must also clearly identify and describe how the results/findings will be disseminated.

Shastri is also interested in creating an alternative research community with new and young researchers/scholars who may not have this background. These would include the target group themselves who are engaged in the search of knowledge in their own ways, or those who are involved in various developmental works for the disadvantaged but who do not have the required background for this purpose, as well as young students who wish to undertake research activities. ARPG, therefore, will give a special emphasis on the development of research capacity of such persons. Involvement of young students and researchers at the ground level should be an important component of the proposal.

Value:

CDN$ 10,000

Duration:

6 months (June – November 2011)

Eligibility:

The lead applicant must be an individual researcher/faculty member or research team affiliated with a Canadian or Indian member institution of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The applicant must have a development partner (NGO) in India that has a long and good reputation of working in the development field directly.

Application Requirements:

• A completed application form
• A summary description of the project (maximum 2500 words) including goals, activities proposed, timeline, research methodology, involvement of business, government and civil society organizations (if any) and dissemination strategy
• Budget with detailed breakdown of expenses and contributions by the host institution and other funding institutions (if applicable)
• Curriculum vitae of the principal as well as collaborating researcher (s) and profile of the Indian partner organization.
• Applications must be submitted by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Evaluation Criteria:

An adjudicating committee will make the final decision concerning successful applicants based upon the following marking system:

1. Potential impact of the research on poverty alleviation (20 points)
   • Is the research’s relevance to the Millennium Development Goals convincingly demonstrated?
   • Does the research have the potential to lead to a concrete development interventions that will bring a positive change in the lives of the target people?
   • How will the research findings be disseminated?
2. Scholarship of the researchers (20 points)
   • Do the applicants have the necessary background and history of applied/ participatory research and collaboration in the area of the proposal to ensure the success of the project?
3. Research model (20 points)
   • Are the project objectives clear and easy to conceptualize in operational terms?
   • Is the methodology proposed appropriate and convincing for achieving the project’s objectives?
4. Budget (10 points)
   • Are the resources allocated in the budget a realistic amount given the project’s planned activities?
5. Timeline (10 points)
   • Is the timeline well structured and does it allot the appropriate amount of time to achieve the project’s goals?
6. Integration of gender equality as a cross cutting theme to the research (10 points)
   • Do the design and methodology of the research take into account different gender roles, perspectives, interests, and priorities?
   • Is the project’s potential impact assessed from a perspective that recognizes gender inequalities and imbalances?
7. Integration of environmental sustainability as a cross cutting theme of the research (10 points)
   • Is the project’s potential impact assessed from a perspective that recognizes the environmental consequences of the work being undertaken?
   • Does the project propose to build capacity in a way that will ensure that environmental resources are preserved for future generations?
8. Potential for training researchers (5 points)
   • Does the project propose to involve researchers early in their careers and provide them with mentorship opportunities?
9. Strength of partnerships to be developed with the non-academic world (10 points)
   • Does the project propose to partner with business, government or civil society organizations in order to accomplish its goals?
   • Do the proposed partnerships have long-term viability beyond the scope of the research project?
10. Quality of the dissemination strategy (5 points)
    • Does the dissemination strategy include dissemination through multiple venues (i.e. publications, workshops, conferences, reports, etc)?
    • Does the dissemination strategy ensure that the research will reach a wide audience within and outside academia?
    • Will the dissemination strategy ensure that that the results of the research are practically applied?

Acceptable Expenses:

Travel and accommodation for participants, meals, communications costs (audio, video conferencing, promotional materials), organizational support, translation, copying and printing, dissemination of research, research assistant allowance, reasonable out of pocket expenses.

Travel expenses may either be for Canadians going to India or for Indians going to Canada or domestic travel for research purposes.

The Shastri Institute is not allowed by the funding agency to pay institutional overhead.

Disbursement of Funds:

45% of the grant will be disbursed upon receipt of a signed contract followed by 45% upon acceptance of a progress report and 10% upon acceptance of a final report.

Application Deadline:

EXTENSION April 10th, 2011. Applications must arrive at the Institute’s office by 12:00am Calgary or Delhi time. Late and incomplete applications will not be considered. Applicants will be notified of the results by May 15th, 2011.

Application Form:

Application Form

Report Form:

Progress Report
Final Report

Funding:

Funding for the Action Research Projects is provided by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Therefore, it is important that the awarded projects are aligned with the CIDA priority and cross-cutting themes.

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