Guidelines
regulating
Proposals for Seminars / Symposia / Workshops /
Conferences,
Grants-In-Aid to
Professional Socieities & Institutions, and
Publication of Resource Material related to
Environment Programmes.
The Ministry of Environment &
Forests (MoEF) promotes environment education and creation of awareness among
all groups of the society through various programmes. It also provides
financial assistance to professional societies and institutions for projects on
promotion of environment education and awareness besides providing financial
assistance for publications of environment related resource material to achieve
this goal.
Objectives of assistance :
i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences
The objective of the programme on
“Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences” is to provide a forum to
professionals, scientists, environmentalists, other groups of the society to
share knowledge and experience on various aspects of environment and for
creation of mass environmental awareness. Under this programme, financial
assistance is provided to universities, academic institutions / colleges,
non-governmental organisations, Government Departments etc. for organisation of
Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences on identified thrust areas
related to environment or any emerging area impinging on technology, innovation
in regard to environment.
ii. Grants-in-Aid
to Professional Societies and Institutions
The objective of the programme is to facilitate optimum
utilization of expertise available with professional societies and institutions
for promotion of environment education and awareness. The programme aims at
utilizing the existing capacities while simultaneously providing for enhancing
the capacities of such institutions. The projects to be financially supported
would interalia include development/extension of exhibition galleries,
interpretation centres and education materials relating to ecology, wildlife
and environment. The financial assistance is not provided for procurement of capital
goods/ equipment. However, some office equipment like computer, projector etc
can be purchased if they are incidental to or essential part of exhibition
galleries, interpretation centres and educational focused activities. This one
time grant is also not available for research, collection and compilation of
data and information or to any individual / business houses. Accordingly, the
financial assistance would be restricted to above items/activities out of a
complete/holistic proposal. The contribution of the organization in
implementing the proposal would be one of the criteria for providing grant
under this programme. The societies/institutions to be supported under this
programme should have high credentials and in-house expertise/experience of working
in the environmental education field. Such institutes/societies may also
include national history museums, science centres, NGOs, etc. The
organizations/institute with inadequate/rudimentary institutional capacity and
without desired level of credibility shall not be provided grant under this
programme.
iii. Publication of Resource Material Related to Environment
The objective
of this programme is to utilize expertise available with professional
societies, voluntary organizations, institutions etc. for developing and
publication of innovative and high quality resource material for promoting
environmental education and awareness by providing financial assistance for
development and publication of such material. The publication material must popularize
the understanding about the environment, emerging issues and out of the box
solutions including innovative approaches for protection and should be relevant
and of high standard and should supplement the efforts of the Ministry to
promote environment education and awareness.
Under
the programme, grant is not provided for publication of newsletters, magazines,
journals, periodicals etc. or to any publisher / business house including
individuals.
Who are eligible?
i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences
·
Any recognized academic /
research institution or Government Department / Government undertaking having
at least 3 years experience of working in environment related subjects.
·
Any registered voluntary /
professional organisation / Trust having proven credential, and experience in
environmental field and registered under the Societies Registration Act for
minimum three years and raising audited accounts.
·
The Proposal should focus on
topics relating to the main theme of the event and organisation should have
in-house expertise in that subject area.
ii. Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and Institutions
and Publication of Resource Material Related to Environment
·
Any voluntary / professional
organisation or academic / research institution or museum / science centre or
Government Department actively involved in the field of environmental education
and awareness for a period of at least three years and having developed
considerable expertise and excellent track record of working in this area.
Thrust areas:-
Seminars / symposia / workshops /
conferences proposals for financial assistance should have adequate focus on
environment related subjects and or environmental awareness amongst masses.
MoEF has identified the following thrust areas:-
1.
Climate Change
2.
Bio-diversity
o Conservation of
medicinal plants and their sustainable utilisation
o Risk and benefits
associated with genetically engineered organisms
o Coastal and marine
eco-system
o Participatory
forest management
3.
Trade and environment
4.
Industry and sustainable development
o Mine
de-commissioning
o Environmental
Impact Assessment
5.
Water
o Availability,
contamination and impacts
6.
Environmental health
7.
Environmental legislation and enforcement
8.
Socio-environmental aspects
and environmental economics
9.
Environmental Awareness
10.
Miscellaneous
How to apply?
i. Seminars /
Symposia / Workshops / Conferences
The eligible applicant should submit
their application three months in advance in the prescribed form [Annexure-I:-
Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences] through the Head of their
organisation/ Registrar in case of universities to the Additional Director (EE), Smt. Rita Khanna, Ministry of Environment and
Forests, Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi-110003. The form
can be either obtained from the Ministry or down loaded from MoEF’s Web Site http://envfor.nic.in.
The proposals which are copies of one another would be outrightly rejected.
ii. Grants-in-aid
to Professional Societies and Institutions and Publication of Resource Material
related to Environment Programme.
The eligible applicant should submit
their application in the prescribed form
Annexure-II: - “Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and
Institutions”, and Annexure-III: - “Publication of resource material related to
environment” through the Head of their organisation or Registrar in case of
Universities to the Additional
Director (EE), Smt. Rita Khanna, Ministry of
Environment and Forests, Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New
Delhi-110003. The form can be either obtained from the Ministry or downloaded
from MoEF’s Web Site http://envfor.nic.in.
All
the proposals from the North Eastern Region should be forwarded by the State
Department of Environment.
Scrutiny of proposals and approval :
i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops /
Conferences
The concerned division of the Ministry
would check whether the information furnished in the application is in the
standard format or not and is complete in all respects.
The Ministry of Environment &
Forests has constituted an Internal Screening Committee for consideration of
such proposals, which meets once in three months. Additional Secretary in-
charge of the subject is the Chairperson. The Committee shall consider those
proposals, which are complete in all respect, keeping the following aspects in
view while recommending the proposal(s) for financial assistance:
·
Credential and standing of
the institution / organisation.
·
The applicant organisation
has not received any grant under this programme during the financial year in
which the proposed event falls. Financial assistance would not be provided more
than once in a financial year.
·
Application from Government
Department / undertaking / academic / research institution has been duly
forwarded by Head of the institution.
·
The applicant institute has
already submitted copies of audited expenditure statement and utilisation
certificate and also settled other issues, if any, relating to previous
grant(s) received by them under the programme from MoEF. In case of NGO valid
registration is also must.
ii. Grants-in-Aid
to Professional Societies & Institutions and Publication of Resource
Material related to Environment
The Ministry
of Environment & Forests has constituted a Screening Committee for
consideration of such proposals. The Committee shall consider those proposals,
which are complete in all respect, keeping the following aspects in view while
recommending the proposal(s) for financial assistance:
·
Credentials and standing of
the institution / organization;
·
Contents of the proposed
publication (in case of financial assistance for publication);
·
Plan of activities proposed
to be conducted (in case of Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and
Institutions);
·
Whether the application from
Government Department / undertaking / academic / research institution has been
duly forwarded by Head of the institution;
· Whether the applicant organization has already submitted copies of audited expenditure statement and utilization certificate and also settled other issues, if any, relating to previous grant(s) received by them from MoEF. In case of NGOs, valid registration is also a must.
Quantum of assistance :
i.
Seminars / Symposia
/ Workshops / Conferences
Approximately 50% of the annual
budgetary provision for the programme will be for technical proposals and the
balance for environmental awareness promotion. The Committee may appropriately
apportion the budgetary allocation for the identified theme areas to ensure
that all the thrust areas get adequate representation.
Financial assistance is only for organisational expenses
(excluding hospitality but include payment of TA/DA to the invited key-speakers
only) of the proposed event and not for capital items like construction,
equipment, automation etc. Following are the stipulated amounts for various
categories of events:
Category Amount
1. State level event A maximum of Rs. 50,000/-
2. National level event A maximum of Rs. 80,000/-
3. International level event A maximum of Rs. 1,00,000/-
(i.e. proposal involving substantial participation from
outside the country)
The Internal Screening Committee of
MoEF can consider higher quantum of assistance in very exceptional case(s) on merits.
However, the apportionment shall not exceed 20% of the total annual budgetary
provision of the programme.
The proposals for financial assistance for publication of proceedings shall be considered for a maximum grant of Rs. 50,000.00 depending on the quality of the proceedings, number of pages and copies to be printed, cost of publication and earning from sale of the copies and provided that previous grant, if any, released by MoEF to the applicant organisation has been fully settled in terms of expenditure statement, utilisation certificate, copies of proceedings etc.
(ii) Grants-in-Aid to the Professional
Societies & Institutions and Publication of Resource Material Related to
Environment
Maximum financial
assistance to any organization would be limited to Rs. 5,00,000.00 (Rs. Five
lakhs only)