Symposia Grant Scheme

Symposia Grant Scheme is given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. This scheme offers financial help to entities like colleges, universities, other educational institutions, registered societies, and government entities. In this scheme, these organisations can organise various scientific events like seminars, webinars, conferences,  symposia, or workshops that will set the stage for all the professionals, scientists, scholars, and students for research and other purposes. These educational seminars, symposia, or conferences are held to share knowledge in any specific research topics that the organisations possess pre requisitely as a result of their research work. The scheme usually helps to fund these seminars and symposia.

Eligibility:

The eligibility criteria for the Symposia grant to be sanctioned are listed below:

• The grant can only be availed by the faculty or the scientists who work in the organisations recognised by the Indian Government. The organisation must have expertise in the field of scientific research. The institutions must be recognised by the statutory bodies for the field of scientific research such as the  UGC, MCI, DSIR or AICTE, etc.

• The Symposia Grant can be availed by recognised institutions that are either: voluntary or professional organisation/ trust/ All India society/ Association, that has proven credentials, are authentic and have experience. These organisations must be registered under the Societies Registration/ other relevant Act that has had audited accounts of about 3 years.

• The Symposia Grant can be sanctioned by the specified Government Department or the associations that have proper Undertaking. 

• The grants would not be sanctioned to organisations that have pending application or utilisation certificates prior to the current application. The application is subject to rejection if the grantee has been barred or blacklisted by any Government agency.

• The organisation availing the Grant must have proper expertise in the field the grant has been applied in. This must be ensured by the organisation with a letter of approval from the head of its department.

Documents to be submitted before the sanction of the grant:

The documents that need to be submitted before the Symposia grant is sanctioned are:

• The application form for the grant must reach the CISR_HRDG at least 2 months in advance and not more than 4 months in advance. For any late or incomplete application form, the applicant will be rejected and will not be reconsidered. In that case, the applicant has to apply again for the grant. 

• The summary sheet ( Form- CISR/SYM/19/SUM) and the main application form, which is placed in Annexure 1 and 2 respectively, must be properly completed and signed, and sealed by the authorised signatories and has to be forwarded through a proper channel.

• If the conference organised is an international conference, copies of approval from the administrative ministry and any other statutory clearance must be furnished, if available.

• A copy of the brochure of the proposed scientific event must be submitted prior to the sanction of the grant by the applicant organisation.

• If the organisation is seeking any kind of financial assistance from any national or international agency for the proposed event, a copy of the letter must be submitted prior to the sanction of the grant. 

• The letter that states the approval or the forwarding of the proposed event from the organisation or the department must be furnished to the office. In case the event is being jointly conducted by  2 or more organisations the approvals and letter of forwarding from all the organisations included must be submitted. In this case, the organisations involved will be held responsible for submitting the UC/ audited statement of the total expenditure. The organisations are also expected to furnish any of the previous grants received from the government if any. Failing to submit, these documents may result in the cancellation of the sanction of the grant and barring the organisations from applying for any financial assistance in the future.

Declaration of Results and Issue of Sanction Letter:

The process of declaration of the results and the issue of sanction letter is explained below:

• The office of CSIR-HRDG shall release the results of the sanctioning of the grants on the official website of CSIR-HRDG i.e. www.csirhrdg.res.in/results.html. 

• The sanction letter will be sent to the selected candidate at the communication details that have been specifically submitted by the applicant during the application. 

• The CSIR-HRDG does not hold responsible for the delay or the loss of the sanction letter by the applicant. 

• If upon approval the sanction letter is not received by the candidate within 10 days they may write to the www.csirhrdg.res.in/results.html. Requesting for a copy of the same.

• No intermediate correspondence in this matter will be entertained by the body and any form of canvassing will lead to the grant to be disqualified.

Document submission for Reimbursement (Post Event): 

The reimbursement will be sent to the organisations account once the event is complete on submission of the following documents:

• Grant aid bill of the event placed at annexure 3.

• Properly audited statements of expenditure in the event approved by the department head. 

• A soft copy of all the proceedings in the event needs to be furnished too.

• NEFT form.

Submission of claims:

The claim forms must be submitted within four months of the  occurrence of the event and in case of delay, the forms will be accepted only after the hearing of the reasons for the delay presented by the chief of th. In any case, the forms submitted after 6 months of the application will not be entertained at all. 

Intimation of Reimbursement:

Sanctioning and reimbursement of the grant for the event on the basis of the information that is already mentioned in column 13 of the application form. Reimbursement will be done as soon as possible according to the availability of the funds and after the transfer of the funds, the organisation will be notified via email.

Conclusion

Thus in this article, we learned all about the symposia grant scheme. We learned about the scheme, its eligibility criteria, the various necessary documents that need to be submitted in the office prior to and post the sanction and the documents that need to be submitted post the event to reimburse the expenditure, and how one can claim via claim forms, and the time periods for it as well. We also learned about the initiation from the office after the grants have been sanctioned.