It is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between top ranked Indian Institutions and globally ranked Foreign Institutions, through Joint Research Projects involving mobility of students and faculty. The SPARC Scheme is expected to have a major impact in providing the best international expertise to address major national problems, expose Indian academicians to the best collaborators abroad, enable international faculty to stay in India for a longer duration, provide Indian students an opportunity to work in the world class laboratories, to develop strong bilateral relationships in research, and improve the international ranking of Indian Institutions.

Eligibility: All Indian Institutions ranked in the overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in the India Rankings. The partner Foreign Institution shall be in the top-500 QS-2020 World University Ranking or in the top-200 QS-2019 World University Ranking by subject to be eligible to be supported under SPARC. The project team should contain at least two international Faculty members, two Indian Faculty members and two Researchers pursuing PhD or post-doc level from each side.