Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme 2021

Within the scope of the bilateral programmes of the Swiss Confederation, the SNSF, the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India (MoES) and the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) are issuing a call for proposals.

The SNSF and its Indian partners, the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India (MoES) and the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research (ICSSR) are launching a call for Joint Research Projects (JRPs); JRPs enable scientists in Switzerland to collaborate with research partners in India.

The call supports research and development projects in two different research fields, one under the MoES, the other under the ICSSR.

Under the MoES, the overarching topic of the call is “Mountain research, with a focus on glaciers or climate research”. The proposal must fall under one of the following subtopics:

  • Glaciers as climate archives
  • Cryospheric modelling
  • Forecasts for heavy rainfall/cloudburst
  • Multi-risk early warning systems
  • Orographic cloud and precipitation formation
  • Aerosols from mountainous ecosystems to act as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nucleating particles

Under the ICSSR, the following topics in the field of social sciences are available:

  • International migration and immigration policies
  • Technology, social media and social cohesion
  • Heritage and cultural exchange in global age
  • AI, big data and social science

The SNSF will cover the project costs in Switzerland and the MoES/ICSSR the projects costs incurred in India. The duration of the JRPs under the MoES topics is 3 to 4 years and JRPs under the ICSSR topics 3 years. The maximum funding for a four-year project is 350,000 Swiss francs.

The available budget for this call allows for the funding of 7 projects in the field of mountain research (MoES/SNSF) and 8 projects in the field of social sciences (ICSSR/SNSF), provided that a sufficient number of high-quality proposals are submitted.