Revised Guidelines June 2011

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UK - India Education and Research Initiative

Call for Proposal 2011

Guidelines for grant applications

Deadline for submission of proposal 5 August 2011 www.ukieri.org

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1. UKIERI Background

The UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) started in April 2006 with the aim of enhancing educational links between India and the UK. In the last five years, UKIERI has played a pivotal role in establishing a step change in the educational relations between the two countries. In recognition of the substantial achievements and building on the success of this initiative, the programme has been extended for another five years from 2011 to 2016. The extension was announced by the UK Prime Minister Mr. David Cameron and Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in July 2010 and the UKIERI MoU ((http://www.ukieri.org/docs/UKIERI_MOU.pdf ) was signed between Kapil Sibal, Minister for Human Resource Development, Government of India and David Willets, Minister for Universities and Sciences, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, UK.

The UK and Indian governments have confirmed funding for UKIERI and the programme aims to now deliver systemic change by reaching out to larger numbers. It will provide opportunities for professional and leadership development of schools, higher education institutions and vocational institutions, support partnerships and develop student mobility and skills development programmes.

The strand details along with sub strand activities are detailed in this document. Some of the programme activities under strands are not being announced now and will be formally announced in Year 2 (2012-13)

This application form is open for the following strand activities:

Strand 2 UKIERI Thematic Partnerships Strand 3 Collaborative Skills Pipeline Strand 3 Institutional Capacity Building Strand 4 Joint Masters & Split Site PhD Scheme Strand 4 India UK Staff Exchange Programme

Applications across multiple strand activities from Institutions are strongly encouraged.

2. Application Details

2.1 Leadership Development

This strand aims to work with key partners and stakeholders in both countries in providing opportunities to teachers, faculty members and senior staff from Higher education institutions, universities, colleges, schools and further education institutions to build capacity as well as to develop academic leadership programmes that provide core knowledge and skills required to become effective leaders and improve efficiency.

The strand has the following sub strand activities:

2.1.1 Higher Education Leadership Development Programme This programme aims to develop an academic leadership programme that provides core knowledge and skills required to become an effective leader and increase leadership development capacity in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in India and the UK The programme would also have an underpinning collaborative project model which will provide opportunities for Centres of Excellence in the UK to build partnerships with top Universities/Colleges in India. It would do this by sharing best practice on academic leadership and management through ongoing collaborations, joint workshops, seminars and exchanges on leadership and management.

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This strand activity is expected to be delivered through a delivery partner. The ToR’s for selection of the delivery partner are published at http://www.ukieri.org/Resources/TORs_HELeadership.pdf

2.1.2 Further Education Leadership Development This programme aims to develop an academic leadership programme that provides core knowledge and skills required to become an effective leader and increase leadership development capacity in Further Education Institutions (FEIs)/ Technical and Vocational education training institutions in India and the UK. The programme would also have an underpinning collaborative project model which will provide opportunities for FEIs in the UK to build partnerships with leading Vocational /FEIs in India. It would do this by sharing best practice on academic leadership and management through ongoing collaborations, joint workshops, seminars and exchanges on leadership and management. This strand activity is expected to be delivered through a delivery partner. The ToR’s for selection of the delivery partner will be announced at a later date.

2.1.3 Schools Leadership Development This programme aims to build a sustainable school leadership development programme in India and the UK through training head teachers/ vice principals and school administrators. The programme would work for enhancing capacity in schools/education authorities who have leadership roles in schools. This strand activity is expected to be delivered through a delivery partner. The ToR’s for selection of the delivery partner are published at http://www.ukieri.org/Resources/TORs_SchoolLeadershipProgramme.pdf

2.2 Innovation Partnerships This strand aims to provide opportunities for the UK and Indian universities to collaborate on thematic partnerships to enhance the innovation capacity of both India and the UK. The strand will focus towards promoting partnerships between HEIs and FEIs with a focus on innovation and new areas of development, both economic and social, in areas relevant to both countries.


2.2.1 UKIERI Thematic Partnerships The sub strand will strengthen engagement and encourage future potential collaborations between the Indian and UK higher education and further education systems by facilitating engagement along with promoting and assisting registered PhD students and post-docs in India and the UK to undertake short-term visits to develop partnership proposals. Multidisciplinary research will be encouraged.

All applications should work on a theme and should support the concept of innovation through:

• Activities that enables solutions/inventions that have an impact on social and/or economic value

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• Activities towards development of new processes or structures and organisational creativity

• Activities that facilitate networks between universities, industry, users and regulators

• Activities that facilitate exchange of innovations between public and private sectors

Eligibility

The programme is open to all UK HEIs & FEIs and India’s HEIs & FEIs. The Project leaders must be of at least postdoctoral status or equivalent.

Each project must be a joint submission by the UK and Indian teams, through their institutions and endorsed by the respective heads of institutions.

UK Project Leaders should be based in a UK institution and resident within the UK; EU citizens may apply provided they hold a permanent position in a UK institution. Non-EU citizens may apply provided they have held a permanent position at a UK institution for at least three consecutive years. Indian Project Leaders should be based in an Indian institution and be resident in India. Non-Indian citizens may apply provided they have held a permanent position at an Indian institution for at least three consecutive years.

The European Commission recognises any type of support given from any public funds to a possible exporter as a State Aid and therefore subject to State Aid restrictions. However, UKIERI grants are exempt under the De Minimis exemption regulation, which allows a business to receive up to a cumulative €200,000 over any rolling three year period. UKIERI which employs the De Minimis exemption regulation is required to ensure that the €200,000 limit will not be breached when they agree an application for grant. Therefore, UK applicants are required to record any public aid they have received over the past three years that may need to be included in their De Minimis threshold.

Activities that the funding will cover

• Institutions under this strand should collaborate to work under themes;

• Activities that foster collaboration, training and work on a collaborative research project in the specified theme/themes;

• Costs associated with activities to disseminate findings; • Clear staff development and training arrangements that support and develop those

involved with the programme at both ends of the partnership; • Activities that support blended teaching methods (e.g. face to face delivery, block

learning / travelling teacher, distance learning, e-learning;

• Costs for Staff and Postdoctoral Research Fellows’ (or equivalent) exchanges: to include travel related and accommodation costs;

• Costs for Research students (UK to Indian and India to UK): to include travel related and accommodation costs and some contribution to research student fees;

• Reasonable costs directly associated with the research activities e.g. reagents and other consumables, travel for field work etc;

• Reasonable costs for attendance at conferences and seminars directly associated with the research activities;

The funds are not intended to contribute towards the direct costs of staff time associated with the projects nor for administration or other overheads.

Duration and Value for the project

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The planned duration of this partnership may not be lower than 12 nor exceed 24 months. Value of project awards for facilitating partnerships will not be greater than £40,000 per project proposal across the project duration.

2.2.2 Department of Science & Technology (DST) UKIERI Thematic Partnerships The sub-strand will strengthen engagement and encourage future potential collaborations between the Indian and UK higher education systems by facilitating collaborations along with promoting and assisting registered PhD students and post-docs in India and the UK to undertake short-term visits to work on research projects. These partnerships will support proposals in the areas of Science & Technology with the following themes: - Stem Cell Research and Animal Biotechnology - Next Generation Networks in Telecommunication - Advanced Materials including Nanotechnology - Weather Science and Climate Change - New Energy Technologies including Hydrogen A number of short term fellowships in Science & Technology areas will also be announced. The call for this scheme will be announced at a later date. 2.3 Skills Development

Skills Development strand aims to work with stakeholders across the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) space viz., training providers, industry associations, sector skills councils, awarding organisations, State and Central Government and agencies to enable the expansion and strengthening of training activities in India and the UK. Activities under the strand are being designed for the UK and Indian TVET institutions/organisations to partner and work together in areas of importance for both the countries. The UKIERI programme will be initiating activities that will facilitate organisations in finding suitable partners and developing business models that could contribute towards this. Preference would be given to proposals in 21 High Growth sectors identified by National Skill Development Corporation (http://www.nsdcindia.org/index.aspx ) The strand has the following sub strand activities: 2.3.1 Skills Travel Grant

Under this sub strand Indian and UK organisations/institutions are also encouraged to apply for Skills travel grants. Purpose of these travel grants will be to facilitate organisations/institutions in finding suitable partners and developing business models for submitting the full grant application under the below mentioned two sub strand activities . The selected travel grant holders would participate in events/ tours organised in conjunction with relevant India/ UK sector stakeholders. Those awarded can then bid in the second call for full grant under this sub strand activity, which is likely to be announced in November/December 2011. Application for the travel grant is available at http://www.ukieri.org/Resources/UKIERITravelGrantForm.doc

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2.3.2 Collaborative Skills Pipeline

Under this sub-strand, proposals are invited from consortia of TVET organisations/institutes including partners within relevant industries in India and the UK. Proposals are sought that will contribute to the development of key infrastructure elements in the area of skills development and capacity building, with a particular focus on strengthening Sector Skills bodies and their engagement with industry/business and establishing key occupational standards, and qualifications that will ensure those gaining qualifications are equipped with the skills needed by modern businesses.

Eligibility

The programme’s financial support is open to Further Education organisations/consortium & SMEs in India and the UK. Organisations might include some or all of sector skills councils, awarding organisations, colleges and/or training delivery organisations, Infrastructure and other delivery service providers, Industrial partners within the sector. Involvement of Industrial Training Institutes, Polytechnics and Schools will be an added advantage. Larger organisations are welcome to participate within the consortia and gain from the general support from the programme but, given their own capacity, will not be eligible for financial support.

It will be ideal for the proposals to include a focus on cross-cutting areas, such as employability or enterprise and on the priority sectors. Applicants should provide a strong rationale to support how the proposed initiative will have a substantial impact on skills development / vocational education system and actual delivery in India and/or UK.


Each project proposal must be a joint submission by the UK and Indian teams and be endorsed by the respective heads of institutions.


Activities that the funding will cover • Activities to support curriculum development • Activities that support development of National Occupational Standards (NOS) and

National Vocational Qualification Framework (NVQF) • Activities towards training of trainers, with clear focus on employability and

employment prospects of trainees;

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• Activities that provide mechanism for Certification and Assessment • Activities for developing Labour Market Information System (LMIS) within the priority

sectors


The planned duration of an action under this sub strand should not be lower than 24 months and nor exceed 36 months. Value of project awards for ‘will not be greater than £ 65,000 per project proposal across the project duration.

2.3.3 Institutional Capacity Building

This sub strand is to build capacity and provide support to vocational education institutions through training and development of teaching/training staff. UK institutes and training providers are to work with private training providers and Indian institutes run under the aegis of Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoLE) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), state governments to provide training and development support.

Eligibility

Joint expression of interest are invited from Indian and UK further education institutes and training providers. Further education institutes/training providers to tie up with institutes run under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Labour & Employment for training of trainers. UK institutes will finalise the delivery model and curriculum with the Institutes/Ministry. This sub strand will provide grants to selected institutes/organisations for training of trainer, curriculum development, certification & assessments in line with sector skills councils.

UK Project Leaders should be based in a UK organisation /institute and resident within the UK; EU citizens may apply provided they hold a permanent position in a UK organisation/institute. Non-EU citizens may apply provided they have held a permanent position at a UK organisation/institute for at least three consecutive years. Indian Project Leaders should be based in an Indian organisation/institute and be resident in India. Non-Indian citizens may apply provided they have held a permanent position at an Indian organisation/institute for at least three consecutive years.

Each project proposal must be a joint submission by the UK and Indian teams and be endorsed by the respective heads of organisation/institute.


The funding will be to support activities that deliver one or more of the following outputs/outcomes:

• More highly skilled teachers/trainers using latest pedagogical methods and equipped to deliver industry-relevant training that enhances employability and enterprise

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• New, industry-relevant curriculum materials

• Dissemination of the resources created beyond the institutions.


The planned duration of an action under this sub strand should be between 12 to 24 months. Value of project awards will not be greater than £ 45,000 per project proposal. We will expect the profile of projects to include a “tail” where a lower level of funding for a limited period is used to enable discussions to take place that focus on how to create a sustainable basis for long-term institutional partnerships.

2.4 Enhancing Mobility

This strand aims to foster mobility of students across India and the UK and to work on key areas like mutual recognition of qualifications and credit transferability. The strand also aims to strengthen cultural links between India and the UK by creating mutual opportunities for student mobility.


2.4.1 Development of Joint Masters and Split Site PhD’s

Under this sub-strand, funding will be available to UK and Indian Institutions to develop and deliver joint masters programme with dual degree and split PhD’s through institutional partnerships.

This strand aims to work towards enhancement of recognition of qualifications between the UK and India.

Eligibility

All UK higher education institutions /Further education institutions and India’s higher education institutions recognized by University Grants Commission and vocational education institutions are eligible to apply. Industry/business engagement is encouraged in project activities.

Each project proposal must be a joint submission by the UK and Indian teams and be endorsed by the respective heads of institutions.


The European Commission recognises any type of support given from any public funds to a possible exporter as a State Aid and therefore subject to State Aid restrictions. However, UKIERI grants are exempt under the De Minimis exemption regulation, which allows a business to receive up to a cumulative €200,000 over any rolling three year period. UKIERI which employs the De Minimis exemption regulation is required to ensure that the €200,000 limit will not be breached when they agree an application for grant. Therefore, UK applicants are required to record any public aid they have received over the past three years that may need to be included in their De Minimis threshold. Proposed collaborations where the lead partner in India is, in effect, an owned subsidiary of the lead partner in the UK is not eligible to apply.

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• Collaborative development and delivery of masters programme leading to an award of joint India –UK degree

• Split site PhDs Other considerations

a) UK awards should be available for all successful students in the proposed programme;

b) Only programmes with atleast 50% delivery in India will be considered; c) Programmes that encourage UK students to spend time in India (and vice versa)

e.g. through taking credits in India or the UK, would be strongly encouraged; d) UK institutions must accept the need to meet QAA responsibilities for all their

awards; e) Indian institutions must demonstrate their commitment to meeting GOI quality

assurance and accreditation requirements for the programme. In the case of private sector institutions this should also include details of status and affiliation;

f) Evidence from Indian institutions to show that relevant approvals from regulatory authorities have been taken or applied for;

g) Clear staff development and training arrangements that support and develop those involved with the programme at both ends of the partnership and which include appropriate induction for staff joining the delivery team after the programme is up and running;

h) A clear statement of the academic requirements for entry onto the proposed programme including any special qualifications, experience or skills required, admission procedures including English Language requirement ;

i) Overall student support arrangements; these should fully meet the requirements of the QAA.

j) Teaching methods to be used (e.g. face to face delivery, block learning / travelling teacher, distance learning, e-learning)

k) Provisions for reviewing student progress and academic counselling.

Activities that will not be accepted for Funding

a) Progression agreements with the main purpose to provide entry onto degree programmes offered solely in the UK;

b) Collaborative provision already in place and for which no significant change is planned;

c) Programmes that offer qualifications which are not recognised formally in India for the purpose intended (e.g. non-accredited awards where employment prospects reside wholly or mainly in government service);

d) Programmes of study delivered entirely by means of distance learning, including e-learning, that do not include some element of face to face teaching;

e) Activities or Programmes that are already being delivered.



UKIERI, in the year 2011–12 aims to select and award joint bids from UK and Indian HEI’s/FEI’s to develop and deliver joint masters programme with joint India-UK degree and split PhD’s. The planned duration of this partnership may not exceed 36 months.

Value of project awards for facilitating partnerships will not be greater than £40,000 per project proposal across the project duration.

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2.4.2 Work Placement Programme

The programme aims to provide recently qualified, Further and Higher Education graduates from the UK, with the opportunity to live and work in India for up to one year. The world is currently experiencing a period of rapid change and economic integration and this process of globalisation is placing new pressure on all countries to be more flexible, open, dynamic and entrepreneurial.

The Terms of Reference (TORs) for implementing the Work placement Programme is being published separately and will be delivered through a delivery partner on behalf of UKIERI.

The ToR’s for selection of delivery partner are published at http://www.ukieri.org/Resources/TORs_Workplacementprogramme.pdf

2.4.3 India UK Staff Exchange Programme The programme will promote staff exchanges between Higher Education/Further Education (HE/FE) institutions and schools across India and the UK for up to 4 weeks to share and deliver best practices on curriculum and pedagogy to learn from each others system. The programme would work for enhancing capacity of teaching staff in Higher Education/Further Education (HE/FE) institutions and schools who would directly further cascade and implement the learnings from each others education system.

Eligibility

Applicants from all UK and Indian HE/FE institutions and schools recognized by University Grants Commission /All India Council for Technical Education/NCVT/SCVT/NABET are eligible to apply. Private FE colleges from India are also eligible to apply.

Each proposal submitted by individual must be endorsed by the respective heads of institutions at the time of application.

The applicants should normally be of a teaching staff based in a UK/Indian HE/FE institution and schools. Faculty/staff seeking to undertake exchange programme in India should be a UK citizen based in a UK University, institution or school; other EU citizens may apply provided they hold a position in a UK institution/school. Non-EU citizens may apply provided they have held a position at a UK institution/school for at least three consecutive years.

Indian faculty/staff seeking to go to the UK should be based in an Indian university, institution or school and be resident in India. Non-Indian citizens may apply provided they have held a position at an Indian institution/school for at least three consecutive years. The European Commission recognises any type of support given from any public funds to a possible exporter as a State Aid and therefore subject to State Aid restrictions. However, UKIERI grants are exempt under the De Minimis exemption regulation, which allows a business to receive up to a cumulative €200,000 over any rolling three year period. UKIERI which employs the De Minimis exemption regulation is required to ensure that the €200,000 limit will not be breached when they agree an application for grant. Therefore, UK applicants are required to record any public aid they have received over the past three years that may need to be included in their De Minimis threshold.


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• Activities that support working in collaboration to enhance the sensibility and awareness raising for different cultures and working methods as a result of training on the job in a totally different environment

• Activities that support exchange of knowledge and different experiences at international level;

• Activities that reflect one’s own work, methods, projects etc. as result of the possibility to compare it

• Activities that help to introduce new ideas, knowledge and collaboration and work towards curriculum development;

• Activities that support cascade to train other faculty/staff as multipliers who disseminate good practise and new methodology etc


Indian Faculty for the UK: Those seeking to apply for this exchange programme should first make contact with their intended department in the UK University, institution or school and ensure that they can receive and accommodate them as required. Letter of endorsement must be submitted through the UK institution/school with the supporting comments of the relevant department added to endorse the application. UK Faculty for India: Those seeking to apply for this exchange programme should first make contact with their intended department in the Indian University, institution or school and ensure that they can receive and accommodate them as required. Letter of endorsement must be submitted through the Indian institution/school with the supporting comments of the relevant department added to endorse the application.

Duration and Value for the project UKIERI, in the year 2011–12 aims to support staff exchanges. The length of each award will be upto 4 weeks for working attachments both in the UK and India. The planned duration of this partnership may not exceed 12 months.

Value of project awards for supporting staff exchanges will not be greater than £3000 per proposal.

3. Other partners

The initial project application should include costs for the lead project teams. In addition involvement of other partners – such as other HE and FE institutions, business partners is encouraged. Any eligible costs associated with these should be included in the application.

4. General Criteria for the Awards

The principles underlying the submission and assessment of proposals for UKIERI awards will be:

• They will be competitive.

• The evaluation process will be transparent and consistent

• They should be submitted jointly by the Indian and UK Hubs or Project Leaders.

• They must have the formal support of the respective heads of institutions/organisations

• No restrictions in place on previous experience of partnership

5. Overall Process for Awards

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• Proposals for funding will be submitted on a standard pro-forma available on the UKIERI website (www.ukieri.org) or from the UKIERI Secretariat, please contact: [email protected]

• The evaluation process will comprise of the process mentioned in details in Section 9.

• The UKIERI Project Board reserves the right to make all funding decisions.

6. Evaluation Process STEP 1: INITIAL SCREENING The following will be assessed: • The deadline has been respected. If the deadline has not been respected the

proposal will be rejected. • The Full Application Form satisfies all the eligibility criteria mentioned in this guideline.

If any of the requested information is missing or is incorrect, the proposal may be rejected on that sole basis and the proposal will not be evaluated further.

Following the opening session and administrative check, the UKIERI secretariat will inform the applicants whether their application was submitted prior to the deadline, whether their application has satisfied all the criteria mentioned in the checklist and whether their application has been recommended for evaluation. This is aimed to be completed by Friday, 12 August, 2011. STEP 2: SHORTLISTING BY ASSESSEMENT PANEL: All projects on the short list will go forward to a sector assessment panel, which will include external assessors. All comments and grading arising from the panel will be seen and used by the final Evaluation Panel to make their recommendations.

The assessment panel will score projects against the assessment criteria, using an agreed scoring scheme. The panel will include representatives from the UK and India and external assessors with relevant sector expertise.

The proposal will have been received ‘in-confidence' and the Panel will treat the application in the same way. To maintain anonymity when assessors’ comments are passed back to applicants, their names do not appear on feedback. This is aimed to be completed by Friday, 16 September, 2011. STEP 3: FINAL SELECTION BY EVALUATION PANEL An evaluation of the quality of the proposals, including the proposed budget, and of the capacity of the applicant and its partners, will be carried out in accordance with the evaluation criteria set out in the Evaluation Grid included below. There are two types of evaluation criteria: selection and award criteria. This is aimed to be completed by Friday, 7 October, 2011. The selection criteria are intended to help evaluate the applicant’s financial and operational capacity to ensure that they: • have stable and sufficient sources of finance to maintain their activity throughout the

period during which the action is being carried out and, where appropriate, to participate in its funding;

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• have the management capacity, professional competencies and qualifications required to successfully complete the proposed action and make it sustainable for the future. This also applies to any partners of the applicant.

The award criteria allow the quality of the proposals submitted to be evaluated in relation to the set objectives and priorities, and grants to be awarded to actions which maximise the overall effectiveness of the call for proposals. They enable the selection of proposals which the UKIERI Board can be confident will comply with its objectives and priorities. They cover such aspects as the relevance of the action, its consistency with the objectives of the call for proposals, quality, expected impact, sustainability and cost-effectiveness. Scoring: The evaluation criteria are divided into sections and subsections. Each subsection will be given a score between 1 and 5 in accordance with the following guidelines: 1 = very poor; 2 = poor; 3 = adequate; 4 = good; 5 = very good. Evaluation Grid Section Maximum Score 1 Financial and operational capacity 20 1.1 Do the applicant and partners have sufficient experience of project management?

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1.2 Do the applicant and partners have sufficient technical expertise (notably knowledge of the issues to be addressed)?

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1.3 Do the applicant and partners have sufficient management capacity (including staff, equipment and ability to handle the budget for the action)?

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1.4 Does the applicant have stable and sufficient sources of finance? 5 2. Relevance 25 2.1 How relevant is the proposal to the objectives and to one or more priorities of the call for proposals?

5 x 2

2.2 How relevant is the proposal to the particular needs and constraints of both UK and India?

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2.3 How clearly defined and strategically chosen are those involved (final beneficiaries, target groups)? Have their needs been clearly defined and does the proposal address them appropriately?

5 x 2

3. Methodology 25 3.1 Are the activities proposed appropriate, practical, and consistent with the objectives and expected results?

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3.2 How coherent is the overall design of the action (in particular, does it reflect the analysis of the problems involved, take into account external factors and anticipate an evaluation)?

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3.3 Is the stakeholders' and proposed partners' level of involvement and participation in the action satisfactory?

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3.4 Is the action plan clear and feasible? 5 3.5 Does the proposal contain objectively verifiable indicators for the outcome of the action?

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4. Sustainability 15 4.1 Is the action likely to have a tangible impact on its target groups? 5 4.2 Is the proposal likely to have multiplier effects (including scope for replication and extension of the outcome of the action and dissemination of information)?

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4.3 Are the expected results of the proposed action sustainable: - financially (how will the activities be financed after the funding ends?) - institutionally (will structures allowing the activities to continue be in

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place - at the end of the action? Will there be “ownership” of the results of the action?) - at policy level (where applicable) (what will be the structural impact of the action — e.g. will it lead to improved legislation, codes of conduct, methods, etc?) 5. Budget and cost-effectiveness 15 5.1 Is the ratio between the estimated costs and the expected results satisfactory?

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5.2 Is the proposed expenditure necessary for the implementation of the action?

5 x2

Maximum total score 100 Note on Section 1. Financial and operational capacity If the total average score is less than 12 points for section 1, the Evaluation Committee will reject the proposal. Note on Section 2. Relevance If the total average score is less than 20 points for section 2, the Evaluation Committee will reject the proposal. Provisional selection Following the evaluation, a table listing the proposals ranked according to their score and within the available budgets will be established as well as a reserve list following the same criteria. STEP 4: PROJECT BOARD AGREEMENT The ultimate decision for agreeing projects for funding support will be made by the UKIERI Project Board. The UKIERI Secretariat will normally submit to the UKIERI Project Board a prioritised list of projects for consideration with the comments of the Evaluation Panel. Following the above analysis and if necessary, any rejected proposal will be replaced by the next best placed proposal in the reserve list that falls within the available budgets, which will then be examined for the eligibility of its applicant and the partners. This is aimed to be completed in Friday, 28 October, 2011.

7. Evaluation Criteria

The main criteria for evaluating proposals will be:

• The extent to which the project might contribute towards both mutuality and long term sustainable partnerships between the UK & India

• The quality of the institutions/organisations applying; are they recognised as Centres of Excellence in the selected field e.g. by government or funding bodies

• The extent to which the projects meet the UKIERI principles through: − Actively involving partners from both countries − Bringing mutual benefits and a two way flow of ideas − Having plans to achieve sustainability − Tools for Social Inclusion/Capacity Building

• The extent to which the projects applications are well thought through and deliverable, as demonstrated by

− Have specific objectives achievable within a clear timeframe − Have clearly costed proposals within the available resources

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− Bring matching funding in cash or in-kind including the active contribution of industrial partners investing their own time in ensuring the industry relevance of TVET development work.

− Are clear about intellectual property arrangements − Have clear ideas for dissemination − Have a clear approach to monitoring and reporting − Have recognized potential areas of risk

8. Financial Proposal

Please summarise the estimated costs (£ Sterling) over the period of the project on an annual basis (i.e. normally for a Financial Year 1 April – 31 March). You should allow for inflation and contingencies within your budget.

Please note the general guidance for UKIERI funding:

• All travel and accommodation cost where applicable should normally be the most reasonably priced economy class.

• Student and other institutional fees: however it is anticipated that participating institutions will discount these significantly as part of their contribution to UKIERI.

• Project specific consumables (upto 10% of the total project funding): UKIERI funds can be used to contribute for such needs. However funds can not be employed to meet the regular administrative costs or running costs of the institution.

• Any other costs to be met from UKIERI funds should be itemised

8.1 Ineligible Costs The following costs are not eligible: • debts and provisions for losses or debts • interest owed • items already financed in another framework • currency exchange losses • direct costs of staff time • administration or other overheads • grants that would take an individual UK organisation over the De Minimus threshold

Submitting your application

The deadline for online submission of proposals is Friday 05th August 2011 at 1430 hours IST / 1000 hours BST. Applications will be submitted online in the first instance to meet this deadline. No applications can be accepted after the deadline, and no changes can be made after submission.

The online application will be submitted by only one of the lead partners. The copy of the submitted form should be printed off by both partners, signed and counter signed from the relevant institutional authority (with the permission to commit institutional resources) and sent to the UKIERI Secretariat in New Delhi

The deadline for the receipt of the signed and authorised hard-copy at the address given below is Thursday 25th August 2011.

Please note: The hard copy must be exactly the same as the copy submitted online, with the exception of the addition of the relevant signatures and dates. Please mention the reference number when sending the application.

Hard copy applications should be sent to:

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UKIERI Secretariat British Council Division British High Commission 17, Kasturba Gandhi Marg New Delhi 110001, India

All enquiries should be directed to: [email protected]

Please note that any application which is submitted incomplete in any way – including the omission of any signatures and dates on the hard copy version – will not be considered.

After submission, all applicants are advised to check the UKIERI website periodically for news of any changes affecting the scheme, and to subscribe to the UKEIRI e-distribution list (which can be done via the website) to be alerted of any developments.

Notes for Completing the UKIERI Application Form

Please bear in mind UKIERI’s particular interest in the collaborative elements of the proposal. You may wish to highlight these throughout your application.

Most questions and sections on the application form give a number of words in brackets. This is an indication of the maximum allowable words for your response. Your response does not have to meet this maximum on every occasion, although you may not exceed it on any occasion. You are encouraged to make responses as clear and concise as possible, while being adequately comprehensive.

You must complete every section / answer every question. If you feel that any question does not apply to your application, state this in your response, and give your reason.

Note the further guidance and requirements given on the application form itself.

The reference box is for UKIERI administration use only – do not complete this section.

Section A – General Details

1. Project Title Please choose a title that uniquely describes your project and clearly identifies the primary subject area for the activity.

2 & 3. Proposed Start Date and End Date Please provide your best estimates of start and likely completion dates for the project. The likely start date for the project should be 1 Jan 2012. Timings should also reconcile to your financial proposal.

4. UK Lead Institution Name Please provide institution name

5. UK Project Leader

Please provide details of the UK Project Leader

6. UK Postal Address Please provide postal address of the UK institute including department and postal code 7. UK Telephone no Please provide contact no including area code

8. UK Email Id

Please provide email id of project leader

9. Indian Lead Institution Name Please provide institution name

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10. Indian Project Leader Please provide details of the India Project Leader 11. India Postal Address Please provide postal address of the Indian institute including department and postal code

12. India Telephone no Please provide contact no including area code

13. India Email Id Email Please provide email id of project leader

14. Other UK Partners

Please list UK key partner organisations/institutions/businesses supporting the lead project teams including contact person details. Give the title, first name, surname, position, department or research centre and institution.

15. Other Indian Partners

Please list Indian key partner organisations/institutions/businesses supporting the lead project teams including contact person details. Give the title, first name, surname, position, department or research centre or institution.

16. UK Group (3000 words)

Please provide evidence of the professional ability and competencies of the UK team and select individual members to demonstrate that they can deliver the proposed project. You can include short CV’s. Please select the most relevant and appropriate entries within the word limits.

17. Indian Group (3000 words)

Please provide evidence of the professional ability and competencies of the UK team and select individual members to demonstrate that they can deliver the proposed project. You can include short CV’s. Please select the most relevant and appropriate entries within the word limits.

18, 19 & 20. Other details Please provide a brief description of any financial aid received highlighting details of the funding body, purpose and amount received for any of the organisation/institution involved in the project (applicable only for strand activity-Institutional Capacity Building).

Section B – Partnership Proposal

21. Project Description (2000) Provide the project description including details of methodology, technical details, target audience and details of demand and the need of the project. Please be sure to use language suitable for a general audience where this is requested.

22. Project Work Plan

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Fill the relevant spreadsheet listing activities, timelines and outcomes proposed for both UK and India. Please complete the spreadsheet carefully and in as much detail as required. The Overview, Technical Detail, Work Plan and Outcomes sections should be clearly linked and there should be a clear read-through between them.

23. Project Management (500 words) Provide project management details including reporting, quality management and governance structure. Please demonstrate that you have considered any IPR implications associated with your project and have in place a means to resolve any potential difficulties (if applicable). This is to cover both the Indian and UK teams and in particular any commercial partners or investors in the project.

24. Dissemination and Impact (250 words) The primary objective of the UKIERI activities is to encourage more long term and sustainable cooperation between the UK and India, learning from the on-going projects is thus vital. For these reasons it is necessary to have strategies to disseminate results. Please indicate how you intend to communicate the project activities / findings to a wider audience. Note: This is in addition to the UKIERI requirements for mid-year monitoring, an annual report and a more substantial report and evaluation at the end of the project.

25. Exchanges (500 words) Please clearly list the exchanges planned, on an annual basis. You must clearly show how many individuals of what level will move in which direction and for how long, each year. Also include details of people/students trained, recruited and outreach numbers. Eg: Year 1: UK-India India-UK Lead researcher for 3 weeks Lead researcher for 2 weeks 2 research fellows for 4 weeks 2 research fellows for 6 weeks 2 researchers for 4 months 1 researcher for 8 months 1 researcher for 6 months 1 researcher for 3 months

Team members must spend at least 50% of the project duration in their home team.

26. Monitoring and Evaluation (500 words) Outline how you will monitor the implementation of the proposal. Remember to cover the research, collaborative, quality of course delivery, assessment/training attended/imparted and financial elements.

27. Additional Information (250 words) Provide any additional information in support of your application.

Section C – Financial Proposal

28. Financial Proposal Please use pounds sterling (GBP or £) as the unit of currency throughout the financial proposal, even though some costs will be incurred in (INR) Indian rupees. For the sake of consistency, please employ an exchange rate of £1 = INR 73. (Although the rate used for payments may vary depending on the exchange rate at the time).

Please double check all amounts and calculations in this section, as it is an important part of the scoring of the proposal, and changes cannot be made after submission, nor will the UKIERI team or assessors check or recalculate on your behalf. Please summarise the estimated costs (£ sterling) over the period of the project on an annual basis (i.e. normally for a Financial Year 1st April – 31st March). You must use the table provided to set out your costs in detail, in the format required.

Please remember that UKIERI funds are not intended to contribute towards the costs of staff time associated (ie Full Economic Costs - FECs) neither with the projects nor for administration, estates costs or other institutional overheads.

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Please also provide details of all the non-UKIERI funding contributions to the cost of the collaboration from contributing parties, both direct and indirect. It is essential and a requirement of the scheme that all proposals are supported by funds in addition to those requested from UKIERI. These must include contributions from both institutions involved, (direct and indirect) and will preferably include contributions from other sources, eg business, industrial, or corporate. The ability to attract additional funding support is considered vital to achieving the overall UKIERI goals - particularly towards ensuring the sustainability of the activities and will be a key criterion for assessing the eligibility of UKIERI proposals. In general, the greater the proportion of costs met from sources other than UKIERI, the stronger the financial proposal.

Direct contributions may include (but are not limited to) direct financial investment in the project by or through the institution, direct financial investment by an external sponsor or collaborator. Indirect contributions may include (but are not limited to) discounts (including up to 100%) on student and other fees, provision of specialist equipment and consumables, accommodation or other provision for visiting students, researchers and faculty.

Also provide a breakdown of which parties will contribute, (eg the UK and Indian institutions, any other partners or sources of support) the value of their contributions and an explanation of what the contribution will cover (eg, if it is cash, is it predicated against anything in particular, if in kind, please explain eg 50% fee waiver, accommodation). Please be clear and concise in presenting this information.

Please also be aware throughout this application that is only concerned with financial aspects of the collaborative project, and therefore institutional contributions should not include staff costs or institutional overheads. Staff costs may only be included as part of the contribution from the institutions or other partners if funds have been secured to employ additional staff purely for the collaborative project.

All International airfares should be the most reasonable economy class fare. Visa fees should be included in the costing of the project expenses.

The monthly allowances should be reduced according to contributions to accommodation and other relevant costs by the partner institutions, eg by the provision of accommodation in institutional guesthouses in India.

Travel within the destination country is permissible only when it is required as part of the project work.

Tuition may be charged to UKIERI for research student and other institutional fees. However it is anticipated that many participating institutions will want to use these as a significant part of their institutional contribution to UKIERI. Therefore if you are proposing to charge UKIERI for them at all, you may wish to discount them significantly.

A contribution to consumables and reagents are chargeable to UKIERI up to a limit of 15% of the total amount requested from UKIERI. These may cover specific specialist consumables eg reagents etc, and field trips necessary for the research, but it is anticipated that the institution will also contribute. UKIERI funds can not be employed to meet the regular administrative costs or running costs of the institution.

Any other costs intended to be met from UKIERI funds should be itemised and these will be considered on an ad hoc basis. They must however meet the principles of eligibility for UKEIRI support. You are strongly advised to check eligibility of any unusual proposed charges to UKIERI before you submit your proposal, as proposing ineligible items is very likely to disadvantage your proposal.

Contingency: You may add 5% to your activities costs to cover for contingencies. The use of any of these funds should be reported as part of the annual financial report.

Note: UKIERI shortlisting and selection is based on the information given in the application, including the financial proposal. Applicants are required to ensure that all information given is accurate, uses the appropriate rates and figures fall within any

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ceilings given, that calculations are correct, and that all items are eligible and comply with UKIERI requirements.

Applicants are advised to check all calculations carefully, including those on the spreadsheet provided. Some formulae may be written into the spreadsheet however applicants may wish to add others. In any case, applicants are responsible for ensuring the correct figures appear in all cells, including the totals.

Furthermore, all applicants are strongly advised to ensure that the costs they use are realistic, as inflated costs will result in low scores on the financial proposal and increase the likelihood of the application not being selected.

Section D – UKIERI-Specific Collaborative Criteria

29, 30 & 31. Long Term Sustainability, Mutuality and Complementarity & Inclusion and Capacity Building Provide details on how project proposal might be sustainable after the funding is complete.

Also indicate the likely benefits of the project proposal to both India and the UK indicating the scale and scope.

Include methods/tools used for social inclusion and capacity building through this project proposal.

Section E – Referees

32. Referees Please provide the name and contact details of two suitably qualified individuals who are familiar with the project work area proposed and can comment on the work of the proposed team(s) and/or individuals. They must not be involved in the project themselves and must be entirely independent of the teams involved and able to provide an objective review of the application.

The nominated reviewers must be contactable within the 3 month period after the close of applications and willing to provide a review. Failure to secure this review will mean that your application will not be considered.

The process for assessing projects will also involve external assessment / review. At least one external assessor will normally be approached, in addition to your nominated reviewers.

Section F – Confirmation, Agreement and Signatures

33. Data Protection Please confirm that by submitting this application, you agree that the information in the application may be made public or passed on to third parties as outlined in the Data Protection statement in the guidelines. Acceptance of this condition is a requirement of applying to the UKIERI strand activities. 34. Institutional Authority & Signatures When submitting the online application, please type in the names and positions of the project leaders and the name and positions of the Institutional Authority in both countries. Leave the signature sections and following date sections blank. The signature and following date sections should only be completed on the hard copy of the application. Note: All information on the application forms of proposals that are successful and funded by UKIERI will have details made public and it is a condition of application to the scheme that you agree to this.

Where applications involve a Corporate or other business, commercial or industrial partner, (either before submission or if the application subsequently secures support) the

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information on the application will be shared with them, and should the application be funded, they may also make it public.

Documents

Revised Guidelines June 2011