ICSSR International Collaboration Programme

What is the ICSSR International Collaboration programme?

The ICSSR International Collaboration programme is run by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education. According to the ICSSR, the programme's purpose is to promote academic links between social scientists in India and abroad and to help Indian research engage with the international scholarly community.

Rather than a single grant, the programme is a set of routes through which Indian social scientists can work internationally. Based on the ICSSR International Collaboration pages, these fall into three broad components:

• Participation in international conferences abroad: support for invited Indian scholars to present substantial work at significant international seminars and conferences.
• Financial assistance for data collection abroad; support for Indian social science researchers travelling overseas for fieldwork or archival research.
• Bilateral joint research: collaborative calls run with foreign partner agencies, such as JSPS (Japan), NSTC (Taiwan) and DFG (Germany), for jointly designed projects in the social sciences and humanities.

Because the specifics: ceilings, eligibility fine-print and deadlines; are set per call, this guide explains the shape of the programme and the real route to apply, and points you to the live call documents for exact figures.

Who is eligible for ICSSR International Collaboration?

You can apply if:

• You are an Indian social science scholar or researcher, generally affiliated with a recognised Indian university, college or research institution.
• For conference support: you have been invited and your paper has been accepted at a significant international conference or seminar.
• For data collection abroad: your research genuinely requires overseas fieldwork or archival access that cannot be done in India.
• For bilateral calls: you have (or will form) a partnership with an eligible institution in the partner country and meet that call's conditions.

You cannot apply if:

• You are not working in the social sciences. The programme is limited to social science and allied humanities disciplines.
• You are seeking a personal stipend or scholarship unrelated to a specific collaboration, conference or project. This is not a general fellowship.
• You do not meet a specific call's conditions on affiliation, seniority or the presence of a foreign partner.

Eligibility for the bilateral joint-research route is usually institution-led — a principal investigator based at an eligible Indian institution applies, not a member of the public. If you are an individual with no institutional affiliation, the conference and data-collection routes are the realistic options, and only against an open call.

What support does the programme provide?

The programme's support is practical and tied to the activity:

• Conference component: assistance toward attending and presenting at the international event (for example travel and related costs, within ceilings set by ICSSR).
• Data-collection component, assistance toward the cost of travelling abroad and carrying out the fieldwork or archival study.
• Bilateral joint research; project funding for the Indian side of a jointly agreed research project, with the foreign partner agency funding its own side.

ICSSR publishes the exact ceilings and admissible expenses in each call document, not as one blanket figure. This guide therefore does not quote a single rupee amount, check the specific open call on icssr.org for the current numbers, because they differ by component and are revised over time.

How to apply for ICSSR International Collaboration

1. Identify an open call. Go to the International Collaboration section of icssr.org and find a currently open component or bilateral call that fits your work (conference, data collection, or a specific partner-country call).
2. Read the call document for that component, eligibility, admissible costs, ceilings, documents and the deadline.
3. Register and log in to the ICSSR applicant portal at app.icssr.org.
4. Complete the online application for the relevant component, entering your academic and institutional details and, for bilateral calls, your foreign partner's details.
5. Upload the required documents, your proposal or abstract, conference invitation/acceptance (for the conference route), CV, institutional no-objection, and a budget where asked.
6. Submit before the deadline and keep the acknowledgement. Applications are evaluated by ICSSR and, for bilateral calls, jointly with the partner agency.

For any question on a call, communication is addressed to the concerned divisional head at ICSSR, as the Council advises on its website.

Help and contact

• ICSSR (headquarters): JNU Institutional Area, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi - 110067; phone +91-11-26741849 / 50 / 51.
• Applicant portal: app.icssr.org
• Programme pages: icssr.org/international-collaboration for the list of open calls and their individual guidelines.

A note on scope

The ICSSR International Collaboration programme is a narrow, call-driven research-support scheme, not a mass public benefit. It genuinely has limited published detail at the programme level because the real terms live inside each call notification. Readers looking for exact ceilings and deadlines should always open the specific current call on icssr.org rather than rely on a general summary.