Indo-German Joint Call for Proposals in the area of Biotechnology

Within the agreement of Indo-German cooperation in S&T of 1974 and the Special Arrangement in Biotechnology for the period 2001-2006 signed on the 15th of February, 2001, a Programme of Cooperation was signed between the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India and Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH (FZJ), Federal Republic of Germany, defining cooperation in biotechnology between India and Germany.

The purpose of the programme is to stimulate new collaborations, e.g. the preparation of joint projects under national funding programmes. The programme facilitates bilateral cooperation in biotechnology between the scientific communities of India and Germany by way of joint research projects, bilateral workshops/seminar, exchange visits of scientist, scientific delegations and composite (scientific and industrial) delegation.

Nodal Implementing Agencies: The Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, New Delhi and the International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (IB/BMBF at DLR), Bonn are the nodal implementing agencies from the Indian and German sides respectively.

Proposals are invited in identified priority areas of:

• Microbial Biotechnology
• Bioprocess Engineering 
• Structural Biology
• Development of cellular systems to rapidly screen pharmacological  and therapeutic substances
• Stress tolerance in plants: methodology, especially in genomic, proteomic and transformation techniques

Evaluation and selection criteria

• Relevance to German and Indian national programmes and multinational programmes (e.g. EU-programmes)
• Preparation of new projects in applied fields of mutual benefit and justification for collaboration
• Quality and originality of research approach
• Qualification of applicant and availability of infrastructure
• Proposals should include young scientists
• Expected results and outcomes

Who can apply?

Scientists/faculty members working in regular capacity in Universities, national R&D Laboratories/ Institutes and private R&D institutes can apply under this programme.

Private Sector: Partners from all kind of the private sector are welcome, but, financing is limited.

Project duration

2 years, extendable by one year.

Processing 

Joint research projects are required to be submitted to both of the nodal agencies by 10 October 2007. Unilaterally submitted projects shall not be considered.

On the Indian side twenty copies of the jointly agreed collaborative research project on specific formats would be received by the respective Secretariat of the Programme.
On the German side, the International Bureau of the BMBF (IB) requests electronic applications and 1 paper version with signatures in the English language using the website http://www.ewa.internationales-buero.de/?project_cat=3 .
The request for format and projects should be submitted to the nodal persons whose contact details are given below:

Indian Side:
Dr. Shailja V. Gupta
Joint Director
Department of Biotechnology
Ministry of Science and Technology
Block – 2 ,CGO Complex, Lodi Road
New Delhi – 110 003, INDIA
Tel.: 2436 3748
Fax: 2436 4064,  2436 2884
E-mail : shailja@dbt.nic.in
Website : www.dbtindia.nic.in

German Side:
PD Dr. sc. Lothar Mennicken
Deputy Director, Dept. America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand,
International Bureau (IB) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF),
c/o German Aerospace Center (DLR),
Heinrich-Konen-Straße 1, D-53227 Bonn, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)228 3821-1407
Fax: +49 (0)228 3821-1444
e-mail: lothar.mennicken@dlr.de
http://www.internationales-buero.de
http://www.internationale-kooperation.de

All received proposals are peer reviewed and processed independently by both sides. The Research projects would be implemented subject to necessary clearances from the Government and laws and regulations of the host and sponsoring countries.

Kind of support available

Financial support for the Indian component would be provided by DBT and financial support of the German component would be provided through International Bureau of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (IB/BMBF at DLR), Bonn.
Financial support is available from the respective nodal agency from the two sides for the exchange visit (Mobilitätsförderung) under the approved projects component only as per the financial terms given below:

1. The sending side bears the total cost of travel of the visiting personnel between places of work in India and Germany, VISA fees, airport taxes and overseas medical insurance. Funding by IB to German experts traveling to India covers the costs for international flights (economy), traveling to and from the German airport of departure, and VISA only. Other traveling costs, e.g. insurances and departure taxes (if applicable) are borne by the sending institute or company.

2. The receiving side shall provide living expenses (except private sector in case of DBT). In general, visits should not extend 3 month.

Indian scientists to Germany: 
a) Short-term (up to 30 days): 82 Euro per day (1 to 22 days); max. 1840 Euro for 23 to 30 days (in case of free accommodation per diem would be 26 Euro);
b) Long-term (max. 3 months): 1840 Euro per month; 61 Euro for single days exceeding full months.

German scientists to India:
a) Short-term (up to 30 days): Rs. 1000/- per day plus accommodation;
b) Long-term (max. 3 months): Rs. 30000/- plus 700/- per day for visit exceeding 30 days plus accommodation.

3. Reasonable support would be available by DBT for Indian PI´s from public institutions. From IB only mobility grants are available (no funding for personal, investment or consumables).

Expected Project outcome

It is expected that the funded cooperation enables the partners to develop applicable scientific results which could be commercialised and may lead to formation to joint ventures. All publications, patents coming out of these projects, need to be jointly authored by both Indian and German scientists.

Time table
Deadline for submission of completed applications – October 10, 2007
Short-listing of selected projects – December 31, 2007
Commencement of Projects – February 1, 2008.