[Sarai Newsletter]Call for Proposals

[The Sarai Programme]

Applications Invited for Short Term Independent Research Fellowship
The Sarai Programme: Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi


What is Sarai?

Sarai is a public initiative of media practitioners and scholars looking at 
media cultures and urban life. Sarai's interests are in the field of old 
and new media, information and communication Technologies, free software, 
cinema, and urban space - its politics, built form, ecology, culture and 
history, with a strong commitment to making knowledge available in the 
public domain. It is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing 
Societies, Delhi. For more information visit www.sarai.net

Who Can Apply

Sarai invites independent researchers, media practitioners, software 
designers and programmers, urbanists, architects, artists and writers, as 
well as students (post graduate level and above) and university and college 
faculty to apply for support to research driven projects.

Why Research ? What do we mean by Research? What is a Seed Grant?

Sarai is committed to generating public knowledge and creativity through 
research. Hence the support for research driven projects and processes. The 
fellowships are in the nature of seed grants in order to emphasize the 
initiation and founding of projects that would otherwise go unsupported

Here by research we mean both archival and field research, and forays into 
theoretical work as well as any process or activity of an experimental or 
creative nature - for instance in the audiovisual media, as well as in 
journalism or the humanities and social sciences, or in computing and
architecture.

The Experience of Last Year

This is the second year in which Sarai has called for proposals for such 
fellowships. We would like to spell out the way in which the process worked 
during the first year, as an indication of what applicants should expect. 
The first year saw the selection of twenty proposals, which included work 
towards projects based on investigative reportage of urban issues, essays 
on everyday life, a history of urban Dalit performance traditions, a 
soundscape of an industrial suburb, a graphic novel about Delhi, a 
documentation of the free software movement in India, research on 
displacement and rehabilitation in cities, and an interpretative catalogue 
of wall writings and street signs.
Successful applicants included free lance researchers, academics, media 
practitioners, writers, journalists and activists.

The projects were submitted in English, Hindi or a combination of the two 
languages. We have seen that projects that set important but practical and 
modest goals were usually successful, whereas those that may have been 
conceptually sound but lacked sufficient motivation to actually persue a 
research objective on the field, usually did not take off beyond the 
interim stage.

Sarai interacted closely with the researcher over the period of the 
fellowship and the grantees made interim and final presentations at Sarai 
which us to trace the development of work during the grant period and the 
grantees to obtain structured but informal feedback from us at Sarai in 
stages during the course of their work. Submissions by grantees included 
written reports and essays, photographs, tape recordings, pamphlets, maps, 
drawings and html presentations.

What we are Looking For

Like last year, this year too we are looking for proposals that are 
imaginatively articulated, experimental and methodogically innovative, but 
which are pragmatic and backed up by a well argued work plan which sets out 
a time table for the project, as well as suggests how the support will help 
with specific resources (human and material) that the project needs.

Suggested Themes

Sarai's interests lie in the city, and in media. Broadly speaking any 
proposal that looks at the urban condition, or at media is eligible. More 
specifically, themes may be as diverse as habitation, sexuality, labour, 
social/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, technologies of 
urban control, health and the city, the political economy of media forms, 
histories of particular media practices, migration, transportation, or 
anything that the applicants feel will resonate with the philosophy and 
interests that motivate Sarai's work.

Sarai supports innovative and inventive modes of rendering work into the 
Public Domain. Proposals, which pay attention to this, will be particularly 
valued.

Preferred Approaches

Innovative and interdisciplinary methodologies, that combine research, 
practice, and delivery or rendition methods will be especially welcome.

Conditions

Applicants should be resident in India, and should have an account in any 
bank operating in India.

The research fellowship would be available for up to six months and for a 
maximum amount of Rs. 60,000.

The fellowships do not require an every day presence at Sarai. These are 
support fellowships and fellowship holders will be free to pursue their 
primary occupations, if any.

What you need to send
There are no application forms. Simply post your
- Proposal (not more than1000 words)
- A brief workplan (not more than one page)
- An updated CVs (not more than two pages)
- Work samples (maximum two)
- Envelopes should be marked - "Attention : Short Term Independent Research 
Fellowship" [Email proposals will not be entertained]. Proposals may be 
sent in English or Hindi.

- Mail these to: Ranita Chatterjee, Coordinator, Programmes, Sarai, Centre 
for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054, India.
Enquires: dak at sarai.net
Last date for submission: October 5, 2002.

Note: Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives, faculty are welcome, 
so long as the grant amount is administered by a single individual, and the 
funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual, 
partnership, registered body or institutional entity.

Applicants who apply to other institutions for support for the same 
proposal will not be disqualified, provided they inform Sarai that support 
is being sought (or has been obtained) from another institution. The 
applicants should inform Sarai about the identity of the other institution.


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