Guidelines for Award of Short Duration Research Projects 2026-2027
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 The ICSSR-SRC promotes, supports and coordinates research in the various domains of Social Sciences to cultivate a dynamic ecosystem of advanced research in the Southern Region of India. In line with this, Short Duration Research Projects are awarded to Social Science researchers from Southern Region, with the aim of contributing to national development by offering evidence-based solutions to present and future challenges in diverse fields.
1.2 The Short Duration Research Projects for the Financial Year 2026–2027 shall be awarded in the following areas, with a focus on advancing the vision of Viksit Bharat @ 2047 in the domain of Social Sciences.
2. ELIGIBILITY
2.1 Researchers who are permanently/regular employed from UGC Recognized Indian Universities/ Deemed to be Universities/ Affiliated Colleges/Institutions under (2)F or 12(B), ICSSR Research Institutes, ICSSR Recognised Institutes and Institutes of National Importance as defined by the Ministry of Education (MoE) are eligible to apply. Applicants from these institutions should have substantial research experience demonstrable through publications of books / research papers / reports. The Project Director and Co-Project Director must also hold a Ph.D. Degree.
2.2 Further, those researchers with PhD degrees who are in contractual appointment in academic/research institutions mentioned in Clause 2.1 and have produced 05 articles in peer-reviewed journals may also apply as Co-Project Directors. In the event of their contract expiry, they may continue as Co-Project Directors until the completion of the project.
2.3 In case of Private Universities/College/Institution, it is mandatory to submit UGC 12B / 2F Certificate.
2.4 Those availing ICSSR PDF/Senior fellowship are not eligible to apply.
2.5 Those who have an ongoing research project (ICSSR) is not eligible to apply.
2.6 The Applicant will be allowed to take up only one research project/program at one point in time.
2.7 No scholar will be allowed to take up a research project along with any ICSSR fellowship.
2.8 There will be a gap of a minimum of one year between two ICSSR Research Projects.
3. HOW TO APPLY
3.1 The applications shall be invited through an advertisement on ICSSR-SRC website and shall be promoted through social media platforms of ICSSR-SRC.
3.2 The applicant needs to fill in the online Google form from our website and also upload the following requisite documents:
3.3 Research proposals and final reports should be in English.
3.4 Researchers can apply for only one project at a time; applying for multiple projects may result in the cancellation of the application. For any ongoing or completed project with the ICSSR, the cooling-off period for applying to another project will be one year for the Project Director. The date of cooling period will be calculated from the date of submission of the final report. However, this will not be applicable for minor projects/short-term empirical research projects of duration equal to or less than 12 months. For ICSSR Research Institutes, the cooling period will not be applicable.
3.5 The Project Director needs to be aware that plagiarism is a serious offence and will mean immediate rejection of the project and black listing of the scholar. The Project Director is advised to run the Project proposal through authorized plagiarism software before submission to the Centre.
Note: Incomplete applications and applications without requisite enclosures shall not be considered for funding
The applicants need to submit an online application along with the proposal, annexures, and other required documents in the prescribed format, duly forwarded by the Competent Authorities of the affiliating university/college/institute. After submitting the online application, a hard copy of the same, along with all enclosures listed in Serial No. 3.2, must be sent to the following address:
The Honorary Director
Indian Council of Social Science Research
Southern Regional Centre
(Ministry of Education, Govt. of India)
2nd Floor, New Building, OUCIS Premises
Adjacent to OUCIS
Osmania University Campus, Hyderabad - 500 007
Email: srcicssrprograms@gmail.com
4. DURATION AND BUDGET
| Project | Duration | Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Short Duration Research Project | 06 Months | Up to ₹1.00 lakh |
5. PROCEDURE FOR AWARDS
5.1 The procedure for the award of the projects will be in multiple phases before the declaration of final results. All applications submitted to the ICSSR-SRC will be screened and evaluated by the expert committee following a blind review process.
5.2 Project proposals would then be sent to two subject experts in respective subject areas for evaluation. The evaluation of the proposal shall be based upon the strength of the proposal and relevance to the society and policy.
5.3 The recommendations of the Subject Experts are then placed before the Expert Committee of ICSSR-SRC for its final approval.
5.4 The allocation of funds shall be based on the availability of funds and the number of applications received during the financial year.
5.5 The final authority related to the interpretation of these guidelines or any other issue is vested with the ICSSR-SRC
5.6 The Selected candidates for the project will be notified via email. Only the selected candidates and their affiliating universities shall be informed individually through a provisional award letter clearly specifying the formalities and documents required for joining the Project.
6. BUDGET AND HEADS OF EXPENDITURE
6.1 The amount will be disbursed in instalments, depending on the funds, phases and duration of the study, as indicated in the Award Letter.
6.2 The detailed budget estimates along with the proportionate Heads of Expenditure for these proposals are to be prepared by the Institute / Project Director / group of scholars.
6.3 Allocation of Heads of Expenditure
A. The remuneration for the Research Staff must be according to the ICSSR-SRC guidelines.
B. The proportionate allocation of expenditure for the budget heads such as Research Staff: Full time/part time/Hired Services, Fieldwork: Travel/Logistics/Boarding, etc., Research Equipment and Study Material: Books/Journals/ Source Material, Contingency: office assistance, printing, stationery, computer-related costs, Institutional Overhead Charges shall be as per the ICSSR-SRC guidelines given below:
|
S. No. |
Broad Expenditure Heads |
Value |
|
1 |
Research Staff: Full time/part time/ Hired services |
Not exceeding 45% of the total budget |
|
2 |
Field work: Travel/Logistics/ Boarding |
Not exceeding 35% |
|
3 |
Research Equipment and Study Material: Books/Journals/ Source Material |
Not exceeding 10 % |
|
4 |
Contingency: office assistance, printing, stationery, computer-related costs |
Not exceeding 5% |
|
5 |
Institutional Overhead Charges |
5 % of the total budget |
|
|
Total |
100% |
*The Project Director may with the permission of the institution re-appropriate expenditure from one sub-head to another subject to a maximum of 10% of the particular budget heads. If the study necessitates re-appropriation beyond 10% it may be done only after the approval of the ICSSR-SRC.
6.4 Project Staff (Research Assistant) shall be engaged/appointed as per the rules laid by the affiliating institution of the Project Director on a full/ part-time basis during the research work. The duration may be decided by the Project Director. The consolidated monthly remuneration/emoluments of the project staff must be according to the following guidelines:
|
Project staff |
Monthly Remuneration/ Emoluments |
Qualifications |
|
Research Assistant (Maximum 2) |
Rs. 10,000/- |
1. Post graduate in Social Science discipline (55% minimum). 2. Preference should be given to candidates with Research Experience / NET / M.Phil. / Ph.D Degree. |
6.5 Selection of Research Staff should be done through an advertisement published on respective institute’s website and a selection committee, duly approved by the Competent Authority of the institution, consisting of (1) Project Director; (2) One external subject Expert (from outside the institute where the project is located); (3) Dean of the faculty in case of University /Principal in case of college and (4) Head of the Department of the Project Director.
6.6 For all field work related expenses of Project Director, Co-Project Director(s) and project personnel, rules of affiliating institutes/universities shall be applied.
6.7 All equipment and books purchased out of the project fund shall be the property of the affiliating institution, and a detailed stock report duly signed by the Head of the Institute / Registrar / Principal has to be submitted to the ICSSR-SRC. However, ICSSR-SRC may ask for books and/ or equipment if it so requires.
7. JOINING AND RELEASE OF GRANTS
7.1 The Project Director has to join the project as per the date of commencement notified by the ICSSR-SRC by submitting the requisite documents such as an ‘Undertaking’ on an Rs.100 stamp paper duly verified by a notary, Declaration in prescribed format on a Rs.100 stamp paper duly verified by a notary, Agreement in prescribed format on a Rs.100 stamp paper duly verified by a notary, No Objection Certificate, Grant-in-Aid bill towards the first instalment on or before the given deadline and Registration Mandate Form of PFMS Account of those affiliating / administering institutions, which have not linked their accounts to PFMS for ICSSR-SRC grant. The joining period can be extended only in exceptional circumstances up to a maximum of three months by the ICSSR-SRC. Failure to join the project within this stipulated period will result in the cancellation of the award.
7.2 The total awarded grant for the Short Duration Research Project will be released to the affiliating institution in two (2) instalments (70% & 30%) as indicated in the Award Letter.
7.3 The first instalment of 70% is released after completing necessary formalities for joining by the Project Director and after receiving the grant-in-aid bill, PFMS Mandate Form and minutes of selection of Research staff shall be enclosed.
7.4 The second and final instalment will be released including overhead charges of 5% on receipt of (a) satisfactory final report with a similarity index of less than 10%; (b) statement of accounts with utilization certificate in GFR-12A Form along with the original bills for entire project amount duly signed by the Project Director/Coordinator, Co-Projector Director (if any), Chartered Accountant (Name of the CA with UDIN No. and Stamp) and Finance Officer/ Registrar/ Principal/Director of the affiliating institution; and (c) an undertaking of settlement of assets and books purchased out of the project funds. (d) Project Director has to bring out a Publication in Peer reviewed Journal along with the submission of the final Project report.
7.5 The 5% overhead charges to the affiliating institution will be released only after verification of the documents by the ICSSR-SRC.
7.6 The Overhead Charges to the affiliating institution will be released after the acceptance of Final Report along with the receipt of the final audited Statement of Accounts and Utilisation Certificate in prescribed formats, which shall be verified by the ICSSR-SRC.
7.7 The Project Director will ensure that the expenditure incurred by him/her conforms to the approved budget heads and relevant rules. The Audited Statement of accounts with Utilization Certificate in form 12A of GFR is mandatory for the entire approved amount for the project.
8. MONITORING OF RESEARCH PROJECTS
8.1 Research undertaken by a Project Director will be monitored through the submission of periodic progress reports in the prescribed format. The project may be discontinued/terminated if research progress is found unsatisfactory or if any ICSSR-SRC rules are violated. In such cases, the entire amount must be refunded with a 10% penal interest.
8.2 The scholar/awardee must acknowledge the support of ICSSR-SRC in all their publications resulting from the project output such as Research Papers, Journal Articles, and Articles in edited Books etc., and they must submit a copy of the same to the ICSSR-SRC during the course of or after completion of the project. In case of absence of acknowledgement by the scholars, they will be blacklisted and they will not be able to apply for any schemes of ICSSR-SRC in the future. Papers published in Conference/Seminar proceedings will not be considered as they are not peer reviewed. However, proceedings published by Scopus indexed / UGC care listed journals can be considered.
8.3 The scholar/awardee needs to be aware that plagiarism is a serious offence and will mean immediate rejection of the project and black listing of the scholar. The Project Director is advised to run the Project Report through authorized plagiarism software before submission to the Centre.
8.4 All project related queries will be addressed to the Project Director/ Affiliating Institution for their timely reply.
8.5 The ICSSR-SRC may, at any time, ask for verification of accounts and other relevant documents related to the Project.
8..6 Final report submitted by the Project Director is mandatorily evaluated by an Expert appointed by the ICSSR-SRC before considering the release of the final instalment.
8.7 The Project Director shall be personally responsible for the timely completion of the Project. The project proposal/final report cannot be submitted for the award of any University degree/diploma or funding by any institution by any member of the project staff, including the Project Director. However, ICSSR-SRC will have no objection if any member of the project staff utilizes the project data for research purpose, provided there are due acknowledgements to ICSSR-SRC.
8.8 If the researchers do not submit the requisite documents and the final report in time or the project is not completed in the stipulated period, the scholars will be blacklisted and the legal recourse will be initiated for recovery of released grant.
8.9 As per the directions of the Ministry of Education (MoE), the amount of grant sanctioned is to be utilized within the stipulated duration of the project. Any amount of the grant remaining unspent shall be refunded to the ICSSR-SRC immediately on expiry of the duration of the project. If the Project Director fails to utilize the grant for the purpose for which the same has been sanctioned/or fails to submit the audited statement of expenditure within the stipulated period, then he/she will be required to refund the amount of the grant with interest thereon @ 10% per annum.
9. COMPLETION OF THE STUDY
9.1 On completion of the study, the Project Director should submit:
9.2 If the expert suggests any changes in the reports at the time of evaluation, the Project Director shall incorporate the changes within stipulated time and should submit the following:
a) Soft copy of modified final report in both PDF and word formats along with two hard copies;
b) Two hard copies of executive summary;
c) Softcopies of (if any) Data Sets, along with well-defined definition of data and other important information for documentation.
9.3 ICSSR-SRC gets every report checked for plagiarism and the similarity report is also generated. As a policy, ICSSR-SRC does not accept reports having similarity beyond 10% on similarity index. Scholars are required to get their final report checked from their affiliating institutions for similarity index and attach a certified report of the same at the time of submission.
9.4 The final report submitted by the scholar will be considered as satisfactory only after final recommendation of acceptance by the expert appointed by the ICSSR-SRC.
10. OBLIGATIONS OF THE AFFILIATING INSTITUTION
10.1 The affiliating institution is required to give an undertaking in the prescribed format contained in the Application Form to administer and manage the ICSSR-SRC grant.
10.2 It is also required to provide the requisite research infrastructure to the scholar and maintain proper accounts.
10.3 The affiliating institution shall open / maintain a dedicated bank account for ICSSR-SRC grant (Scheme Code-0877) that is duly registered at EAT Module of PFMS portal for release of the grant without any delay. This account should be retained for all projects awarded by ICSSR-SRC.
10.4 The affiliating institution will be under obligation to ensure submission of the final report and an Audited Statement of Accounts and Utilization Certificate, (in the prescribed Proforma GFR 12-A) duly certified by the competent authority of the institution including the refund of any unspent balance.
10.5 The affiliating institution shall make suitable arrangements for preservation of data such as filled-in schedules, tabulation sheets, manuscripts, reports, etc. relating to the study. The ICSSR-SRC reserves the right to demand raw data, or such parts of the study as it deems fit.
10.6 In case a Project Director leaves / discontinues the project before completion of the tenure, the affiliating institution shall inform ICSSR-SRC immediately and refund the entire amount with a penal interest @ 10% per annum. The unutilised funds pending with the institutions for all projects must be returned to the ICSSR-SRC immediately. In case the universities/ institutions do not abide by the rules of the ICSSR-SRC, they shall be blacklisted for applying in schemes of ICSSR-SRC in the future.
10.7 In case a Project Director dies before the completion of the project, the affiliating institution shall immediately inform ICSSR-SRC by submitting a copy of the death certificate and settle the accounts immediately by expediting refund of any unspent balance.
11. OTHER CONDITIONS
11.1 The duration of the project includes the time for Final Report writing. In exceptional circumstances, if the ICSSR-SRC is satisfied with the progress of the work, including quality publications, an extension may be granted (up to three months for Short Duration Research Projects) without any additional grant. In case, the extension is needed beyond the above-mentioned period, the matter will be put up to the competent authority of ICSSR-SRC for a decision. If the extension is required, the Project Director needs to request at least three months prior to the end of stipulated tenure for no-cost extension with a copy of the progress report and reasons for the delay with documentary evidence. Retrospective extension will not be permitted.
11.2 Defaulters of any previous fellowship/project/programme/grant of the ICSSR-SRC will not be eligible for consideration. No scholar will be allowed to take up a research project along with any ICSSR fellowship.
11.3 Foreign trip is not permissible within the awarded budget of a project. However, the Project Director may undertake data collection outside India in exceptional cases and if warranted by the needs of the proposal. For this he/she is required to apply separately for consideration under the Data Collection Scheme of the ICSSR International Collaboration Division. However, ICSSR-SRC will not be bound to support such data collection from abroad and the decision of the ICSSR-SRC will be final. In either case, the completion of study should not be consequent upon such data collection support.
11.4 Any request for additional grant in excess of the sanctioned budget will not be considered.
11.5 The procurement of equipment/assets for the research project is allowed only if it was originally proposed, does not surpass the permissible amount, and adheres to the regulations of the affiliating institution.
11.6 The project director cannot make any changes in the research design at any stage.
11.7 Regarding Transfer of a Project/Appointment of substitute Project Director:
a) On the request from a university/institute, the ICSSR-SRC may permit the appointment of a Substitute Project Director in exceptional circumstances.
b) The ICSSR-SRC may also appoint a Substitute Project Director if it is convinced that the original awardee of the Project will not be in a position to carry out the study successfully.
c) The ICSSR-SRC may transfer the place of the Project from one affiliating institution to another subject to submission of the following:
d) Overhead charges will be apportioned proportionally among the institutes as per the grant released or as may be finally decided by the ICSSR-SRC.
e) In case of superannuation of Project Director and if the rules of the institution so require, the transfer of the project to a serving faculty member may be done with prior approval of the ICSSR-SRC. The credit of Project shall belong to the original Project Director.
11.8 Consideration under other call(s) would require a fresh proposal.
11.9 The ICSSR-SRC reserves the right to reject any application without assigning any reason. It will not be responsible for any postal delays/loss.
11.10 No queries will be entertained by the ICSSR-SRC until the final declaration of results against a call. Any lobbying for award will lead to disqualification.
11.11 The ICSSR-SRC retains all rights to publish any project funded by it, contingent upon the recommendation by expert(s) appointed by ICSSR-SRC for publication. Copyright for the final report and outcomes of the project shall be held by ICSSR-SRC. Any publication or dissemination of research findings shall solely be at the discretion of ICSSR-SRC.
12. PUBLICATION OUT OF PROJECT
Project Director has to bring out atleast one Publication in Peer reviewed Journal along with the submission of the final Project report. The Project Director should also acknowledge the contribution of SRC in all the publications coming out of the project.
13. DOWNLOAD FORMATS (Click the corresponding buttons below to download the files)
Google Form link:
https://forms.gle/zcAXap9kfNTgykke8
Note:- Please keep ready the JPEG/Image Files of Passport Size Photo & Signature and other documents mentioned at 3.2 as PDF Files to upload in the Online Application Form