India-US Collaborative Research

Opportunity -

The U.S. National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and Directorate for Engineering (ENG) intend to support some supplemental funding requests for active research awards to conduct India-US collaborative research, in coordination with the Indian Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs). iHub Drishti, TIH at IIT Jodhpur, focuses on computer vision and ARVR research with applications in autonomous systems, healthcare, biosphere, document processing, ARVR in industry 4.0, applications of ARVR, dependable CV, real time computer vision, and other related areas. The basic funding principle for collaborative research between the iHub Drishti and the NSF is that the iHub Drishti will fund India researchers and research entities, and US programs fund US researchers and research entities.

Active NSF-funded researchers with grants from a subset of NSF programs may propose, as part of their supplemental funding requests, a collaborative project with their Indian counterpart. This includes 2000+ NSF-funded research groups. You may find eligible collaborators and the relevant awards which can be accessed through the public NSF awards database: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/advancedSearch.jsp.

For instructions on designing your own searches, see: https://www.nsf.gov/awards/award-search-guide.jsp.

With this letter, iHub Drishti Foundation wishes to notify the research community in India of the intention to support funding requests for pursuing India- United States (India-US) Collaborative Research.

Eligibility -

Proposals can be submitted by principal investigators (PIs) and co-investigators (co-PIs) belonging to Indian academia. All PI and Co-PI details have to be present in the proposal at the time of submission, and the choice of each partner in the project must be justified by their experience and the work that they propose to undertake in the project.

Indian researchers can identify potential United States counterparts via information posted at the TIH website as well as the public NSF database, as explained above. Funding awarded pursuant to this scheme may be used by the project team to support the time of the PI, co-PIs, other senior personnel, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students or travel to conduct collaborative research with United States researchers.

How to apply -

Proposal must be submitted in response to a call from iHub Drishti Foundation through its website (https://ihub-drishti.ai/). The proposal must be in the same scope as described in the corresponding NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG).

1. Summary of the active NSF research award, including original research vision, goals, activities, and accomplishments, spanning Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts and how this award is related to the proposed work (about a page).
2. The collaborating project description (this should be the same as submitted to the collaborating United States counterpart)
3. The proposal must include a detailed work division and plan, including final integration and delivery.
4. Bio-sketch of the Indian PI and Co-PIs and United States lead partner (one page each).
5. The proposal must contain a detailed description of the budget required for the overall project, justifications, and its division by partner and budget head.
6. The project will be awarded for one or two years, and will be subject to regular review every six months.

When to apply

We will accept proposals on a rolling basis and as per NSF defined deadlines.

Intellectual Property

The TIH will follow the guideline laid down in ANNEX I for the intellectual property section of the Agreement on Science And Technology Cooperation Between The Government Of The United States Of America And The Government of The Republic Of India.