2020 DUO-India Fellowship Programme(Students)

1. General Description

DUO-India Fellowship Programme is established in 2019 with the aim of promoting exchange of people between India and European countries on a balanced and permanent basis. For this program, only such institutes which are part of the Joint Research Projects under Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) are eligible to participate.

DUO-India aims to fund every year, 100 student-pairs for exchanges for one semester, starting from 2020 onwards aiming to provide mobility between Indian and European institutes. In this respect, DUO-India requires that a PAIR (two persons) of students be exchanged, and they should be from any of the collaborating institutes (both Indian and European) under SPARC projects.

The list of such institutes (both Indian & European) can be seen in https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/. As of now, 14 European countries namely Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK are part of SPARC programme.

CAUTION: If any application falls under the following 3 cases, the application is disqualified and will not be considered for selection. If such a case is found after the selection, the Secretariat reserves the right to cancel the fellowship (BOTH Indian/European students) and request the return of the fellowship in full. Therefore, the contact persons of the institutes should carefully confirm that the applications do not fall under the following 3 cases.

Definitions of students are as below:
• Students: undergraduate, master, doctoral and post-doctorate students who are currently enrolled in institutes (leave of absence is allowed)

N.B.: All applicants shall maintain their “enrollment status” at the time of application until the time they are engaged in exchanges.

1.1. Eligibility

Due to the unique nature of this programme, in order to be eligible, the following are required:

The exchange fulfills all the three requirements below:

1. The Indian institute (Home institute) will select an Indian national student enrolled at the Home institute to send to the European institute (Host institute), and such selection has been accepted by the Host institute;

2. The same Host institute will select an EU citizen student enrolled at the Host institute to be sent to the Home institute, and such selection has been accepted by the Home institute.

3. If any of the students are in exchange programmes in the fall of 2019, then they are disqualified.

1.2. Duration and Fellowship

DUO-India 2020 is for exchange of students for spring semester (between Jan/Feb and May/June, 2020) and fall semester (between Aug/Sep and Nov/Dec, 2020). The selection of DUO-India Fellows would be made ONLY once a year. In this respect, those who are planning to exchange in 2020 shall apply for DUO-India 2020 within the timelines specified below.

The duration and the amount of the fellowships are standardized as follows:

2. Application and Selection Procedure

2.1 Application Period

Applications will be accepted from July 15 to August 31, 2019 local Indian time.

Applications submitted after August 31, 2019 will not be accepted.

2.2. Who Applies?

The Indian institute applies on behalf of both institutes and people who are to participate in the exchange. European institutes in partnership with Indian institutes shall cooperate fully with Indian institutes in supplying precise information of European applicants.

Individuals wishing to take part in exchanges are advised to contact the relevant offices, most probably international relations offices of the institute to file an application for this program.

2.3. Documents

1) Filling out an Online Application Form ONLY.
2) A copy of Passport of paired applicants (a copy of document showing nationality for Indians or citizen card for Europeans are acceptable).
3) A copy of Transcript of paired applicants (including the grades until spring semester 2019, if available)
4) A Motivation Letter of paired applicants (the form can be downloaded from the ASEM-DUO website at www.asemduo.org).

2.4. Application Submission

1) Click JOIN US button and find the Name of Home institute to get an ID.
※If you don’t find the name of your institute, please contact the Secretariat at admin2@asemduo.org to add your institute to the list.
2) Enter your password with the minimum information of the contact person in Home institute. One institute can get ONLY one ID.
3) There should be ONLY one contact person in the same institute.
4) Home institute should fill out the whole application including the information of Host institute. If needed, Application Form in word file can be downloaded from the ASEM-DUO website (www.asemduo.org).
5) The rest of the documents (Passport Copies, Transcripts and Motivation Letter) can be uploaded in the last step of the application process.
6) Once completed, please make it sure to submit your application by clicking “Submit” button. Home institute should get a confirmation email from the Secretariat within 3 days after completion of submission. If you don’t get a confirmation email, please contact admin2@asemduo.org promptly.

2.5. Selection Method

An Indian Selection Committee, as decided by the Apex Committee of SPARC will make the selection after the application deadline. The decision will be announced by October 2019, subject to change depending upon the workload.

The notification will be displayed on website, www.asemduo.org and the Secretariat will directly notify Contact Persons/Awardees in writing. Hard copies of notification and Letter of Acceptance (forms are also available at www.asemduo.org) will be forwarded to both Home and Host institutes. Contact Persons may download forms of Letter of Acceptance, if they so wish.

2.6. Selection Criteria

1) Eligibility: master and doctoral students preferred, but undergraduate student or post-doctorate can be considered in case of exceptional merit.
2) Subject Groups: Sciences, Technology and Social Sciences
3) Institutes: Students from such Indian institutes which are part of joint research projects under SPARC with European institutes will get the first priority. The European students shall be from such European institutes which are already in association with the Indian institute under the SPARC project.
4) Fellowship Amount: The fellowship covers the travel and living expenses for the students @ 4 months.

Additionally, the following selection criteria will be considered;
a) Motivation letter
b) Courses to take in Host and Home institutes
c) GPA and ECTS

2.7. Fellowship Amount

There are no restrictions in using the fellowship. It can finance the tuition, and living or travel expenses. However, if the student stay in exchange country less than 4 months (120 days) or traveled without informing the Secretariat in advance, the fellowship will be adjusted on a pro-rata basis.

3. How to Fill out Application Form

3.1. Language of Application

You should write your application in English.

3.2. Structure of the Application Form

1) Page 1. – Home institute

The first box of ID number and Date of submission is for the use of the Secretariat only. Please, start from filling out information of Home institute.

• CONTACT PERSON: means a regular staff of Home institute who arranges the exchange and is willing to communicate with the Secretariat in such events as verifying application details, monitoring exchanges and providing further information on the status of the exchange. The Home institute will decide the contact person for DUO-India Fellowships, who should preferably be from international relations office.
• PERSON OF EXCHANGE: shall be an Indian student who will participate in the exchange.
• GPA: means a grade which an Indian student has earned up to the most recent semester.
• Type of Exchange: for the undergraduate student, click the boxes how many years an Indian student has accomplished (you may include the fall semester of 2019). For others, click the appropriate boxes.

N.B.: For each pair of an exchange, the exchange period of Indian and European students need not necessarily coincide, and the field of exchange need not be the same.

2) Page 2. – Host institute

In this page, provide information of Host institute involved in the exchange. The Host institute shall be resided in 14 European countries which are part of SPARC (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK).

• CONTACT PERSON: means a regular staff of European institute who arranges the exchange and is willing to communicate with the Secretariat in such events as verifying application details, monitoring exchange and providing further information on the status of the exchange.
• PERSON OF EXCHANGE: shall be any European student who will participate in the exchange.
• ECTS: means a whole ECTS that an European student has earned up to the most recent semester.
• Type of Exchange: for the undergraduate student, click the boxes how many years an European student has accomplished (you may include the fall semester of 2019). For others, click the appropriate boxes.
• Confirmation on Agreement with Host institute (TO BE SIGNED BY the CONTACT PERSON at the Home institute): since the contact person in Home institute is required to complete the application on behalf of two people who will participate in the exchange and the Host institute, he/she should confirm here by checking on “YES” that the contact person in the Host institute also agree with this submission of the application.

3) Page 3. – Description of Exchange Program

In this section, please describe the duration and purpose of exchange as instructed on the form.

• Duration of Exchange: As stipulated in General Description above, duration of DUO-India Fellowship is standardized on a semester basis. One semester means 4 months.
• Purpose of Exchange: Please, specify what the purpose of the exchange is. A minimum of 10 credits (20 ECTS) must be taken up during the semester in exchange.

4) Page 4.- Exchange Details/Source of Finance

• Exchange Details: Under this heading, intended class schedules by Indian and European students should be listed during their exchanges periods.
• Source of Finance: If this exchange has any other source of finance, please specify.

5) Page 5. –Certification of Authenticity

After completing all relevant items in appropriate manner on the entire field of application, please write the date and the names of contact person of Home institute and the president or Director of institute in the section of Certification of Authenticity. Submit the form to the Secretariat by clicking “submit” button.
※Save the attachment files as a Surname_Given name in its order (e.g. John_Smith).

If your application has been selected, the scanned version of all documents with signatures by email, along with an endorsement letter by the contact person of the institute that the scanned version is authenticated/verified will be requested.

3.3. After the Submission: Acknowledgement

The acknowledgement on the receipt of submission will be sent to the contact person in Home institute by e-mail within 3 working days after submission.