Research Funding Rules

Research  Projects

1. The Research Projects Committee may award a grant for a project of research in History or on a theme substantively including an aspect or aspects of History, undertaken within India, under a scholar as Project Director, upon an application made by or on behalf of the said scholar in accordance with the proforma given in Annexure IV.
2. (a)   an application under Clause 1 may be made at any time. On being received it shall be sent to at least two consultants, who shall be requested to furnish an assessment and recommendations within a month.
   (b)   On receipt of the assessment and recommendations of the consultants, these along with the application shall be placed before the Research Projects Committee for decision on award of the project grant.
   
   Provided that if assessment and recommendations from at least two consultants are not received within two months of the request being made to them under sub-clause (a), the application may be sent to another consultant or other consultants; but if even after two months, only one consultant’s assessment and recommendations have been received these together with the application or proposal may be placed before the Research Projects Committee.
3. Notwithstanding anything contained in Clause 1 and 2, the Research Projects Committee may on its own or at the recommendation of a ‘Committee of Experts’, such as the Inscriptions Committee, or the Medieval Sources Committee or the Modern Sources Committee of the ICHR, assign or award a project to a scholar and fix his honorarium.
4.  (a)   Notwithstanding anything contained in the foregoing clauses of this chapter, the amount of grant on any project awarded by the Research Projects Committee shall not exceed Rupees two lakhs and fifty thousand (Rs. 2,50,000/-) only.
   
   Provided that should the Research Projects Committee be of opinion that a project entailing an amount of grant in excess of Rupees two lakhs and fifty thousand (Rs. 2,50,000) should be awarded, it may make a recommendation to this effect to the Council, which alone shall be competent to take a decision on such award.
   (b)   A project funded by the ICHR under the provisions of this chapter may receive financial assistance from other funding agencies or institutions, but full information on such support should be given in the application, if the support is already being received, or is being sought, and/or in subsequent communication, whenever it shall subsequently be received or be applied for.
5. The duration of a project shall ordinarily not exceed two years, but the Research Projects Committee (or the Council, when it makes the award) may set a longer period.
           
   Provided that—
   (a)   It the Project Director of a project wishes to withdraw from the project or is unable to continue with it, or dies, or if it appears that a change in the person of Project Director is desirable, the Research Projects Committee may make the said change, in consultation with the institution of affiliation; and
    (b)   Any significant change in research design of the project shall require prior approval of the Research Projects Committee.
6. The grant awarded under Clauses 1 and 3 shall include (a) expenditure allowable under Contingency grant, (b) purchase of equipment and of consumable articles required for equipment, and the cost of servicing and repair of equipment, (c) emoluments of research assistants, whole-time of part-time typists, clerks, and other staff; (d) honorarium for the scholar awarded or assigned a project under Clause 3.
   
   Provided that—
   (a)   Any item of equipment or book costing Rupees one thousand (Rs. 1000) or more purchased out of the grant shall be returned to the ICHR or surrendered to the institution of affiliation when the project has been completed;
   (b)   Staff working in the project shall not be deemed employees of the ICHR, and their emoluments shall not necessarily conform to the scales in force for the regular cadre of the ICHR or for the various categories of Fellows in the ICHR;
   (c)   The terms of the award made under Clauses 1 and 3 may lay down sums of grant assigned to different heads of expenditure, and re-appropriation from one head to another, involving a reduction of more than ten per cent of grant under the head, requiring prior approval of the Research Projects Committee, or, in cases of urgency, of the Chairman;
   (d)   The position of the Project Director under Clause 1 shall always be honorary, but he shall be entitled to draw DA/TA for journeys performed for work of the project at the same rates as he would have been entitled to at the institution of affiliation, if he is employed there, or, if he is not so employed, at rates approved by the ICHR; and
   (e)   No attendant or Group D staff can be employed out of the project grant.
7. (a)   A grant awarded under Clause 1 shall be paid to the Project Director only through the institution of affiliation. The grant shall normally be paid in six-monthly of annual instalments, unless the Research Projects Committee otherwise directs.
   (b)   A grant awarded under Clause 3 may be paid to a scholar through an institution of affiliation, but direct payment may be made, in case the Chairman so decides.
   (c)   The institution of affiliation shall be expected to provide the same facilities to the Project Director, or a scholar awarded a project under Clause 3, as specified in respect of a Fellow in Clause 15(c) of Chapter II of these Rules, and shall be paid overhead charges in return thereof by the ICHR.
8. A Project Director shall submit a six-monthly report in triplicate to the institution of affiliation to be forwarded to the ICHR. Subsequent grant for the Project shall not be released if the progress report and statement of expenditure for two previous consecutive six-monthly periods are not furnished, or, if furnished, are not found satisfactory.
9. The Project Director shall submit the final report of the project within three months of the end of the period of the project; and five per cent of the entire grant of the project awarded under Clause 1 shall be withheld, to be released on reimbursement basis only after the final statement of expenditure is received from the institution of affiliation, and the final report is deemed satisfactory by (a) the Member Secretary, upon assessment by a consultant, in case the grant was of the amount of Rupees one lakh fifty thousand (Rs. 1,50,000) or less, or (b) the Research Projects Committee, upon assessment by at least one consultant, in case the grant was of an amount exceeding Rupees one lakh fifty thousand (Rs. 1,50,000).
           
   Provided that if the Project Director applies for extension of the project, he shall submit the report for the whole previous period and the statement of expenditure for that period, whereupon the said report shall be sent to a consultant, whose assessment and recommendations shall be placed before the Research Projects Committee to assist it in making its decision, should it have itself made the original award, or in framing its recommendations to the Council, should the Council have made the original award under proviso to Clause 4 (a).
10. An honorarium due to a scholars, awarded a grant under Clause 3 shall ordinarily be paid only after the work under the project awarded or assigned to him has been completed.
            
    Provided that—
    (a)   he shall be required to submit reports and accounts in the same manner as a Project Director, under Clause 9, and
    (b)   with the approval or the Member Secretary, a part of the honorarium due on the work already done, may be paid to the scholar after the assessment by a consultant of the said part of the work has been obtained.
11. The Project Director or any person on the staff of a project shall not be entitled to submit the report or monograph prepared under a project as dissertation or thesis for the award of diploma or degree (M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. or D.Litt.), but there shall be no objection to use being made, bonafide, of material collected under the project in preparation of a dissertation or thesis for a degree.
12. The Project Director shall have the copyright over, and be entitled to publish in his own name, the report or monograph prepared under the project, but he shall duly acknowledge the assistance of the ICHR and the collaboration of research staff appointed for the project, by name, in a suitable manner.
    
    Provided that in the acknowledgement of assistance received from the ICHR, it shall be made clear that the ICHR accepts no responsibility for the facts or opinions contained in the publications.
13. It shall be the duty of the Project Director (or of the scholar awarded a grant under Clause 3) and the institution of affiliation to make suitable arrangements for the preservation of research material collected under the project, such as copies of documents, microfilms, tapes, manuscript notes from sources, photographs, reference cards, and tabulation sheets, and it shall be open to the Research Projects Committee to require that all or any such data be transferred to the ICHR for safe-keeping and providing access thereto to research workers/scholars.
            
    Provided that the said transfer shall not be asked for until the Project Director (or the scholar awarded a grant under Clause 3) has had reasonable time to utilise the material for the preparation of the report monograph or text planned under the project.