About the Support Fund

A dominant theme amongst all is that the next decade will be decisive in the transition to a civilisation that lives within the boundaries of our planet. There is hardly any room for business as usual. We need to come to grips with resource scarcity, surging demand and the impacts of climate change. Solving these challenges requires that all reasonable ideas are considered and researched, even though they are provoking and counterintuitive.

Varshita Venkatesh Research Support Mini-Fund (VVRSMF), administered by TERI School of Advanced Studies and seeded by Dr G Venkatesh, encourages youth to collaborate, innovate and pursue goals of sustainable development and invites people, institutions, and development organizations to support mainstreaming youths as sustainability champions through generous contributions to the fund.

In honour and memory of my dear departed wife, Varshita, I, in my personal capacity, intend to set up and seed the Varshita Venkatesh Research Support Mini-Fund (VVRSMF), with the purpose of providing a little support to post-graduate research students during the months they work on their master-theses, at TERI School of Advanced Studies (TERI-SAS), New Delhi. Varshita grew up in New Delhi and was associated with the tertiary education sector during her career in India, Australia and Norway. Her legacy of service to others and determination during her lifetime to ‘leave the world a better place than when you came into it first’ are reflected in the VVRSMF. The VVRSMF, set up under the aegis of TERI-SAS, New Delhi, will contribute to a host of sustainable development goals. There is bound to be a lot of research work undertaken at TERI-SAS in the years to come, in areas related to the multiple dimensions of sustainable development. There will thus be much scope for many post-graduate students (including exchange students) to be aided in small ways by the VVRSMF. Once set up and seeded, while I myself will keep ‘charging it’ regularly, God willing, other potential benefactors may also emerge over time.

Eligibility
Students enrolled in a Masters degree program in any university who wish to pursue their dissertation under the Supervision/Co-supervision of a faculty from TERI SAS, New Delhi. Beneficiaries of the grant must acknowledge the grant's support in their submissions and research communication.

Grant money
The support grant shall be provided only for meeting expenses related to research work, such as laboratory consumables, travel, group exercise, etc. The grant shall not be provided for monthly stipend and boarding and lodging expenses in Delhi NCR.

Expected duration of research work
Minimum three months to maximum 12 months.

When to apply
Applications are invited throughout the year.

How to apply
Candidates can submit their ‘intent to avail VVRSMF grant’ application to registrar@terisas.ac.in. The application should provide the following information in a Word document as an attachment to the mail.

1. Name
2. Affiliating university
3. Department
4. Degree program
5. Duration of research: Start and End date
6. Name of the faculty/department in TERI SAS where you wish to pursue your research
7. Title of the research
8. Brief description of the research (max 300 words)
9. Indicative Budget.

Selection criteria
1. The concerned department shall screen the application.
2. Successful applicants may be asked to submit a detailed proposal in a prescribed format by the department.
3. Promising research proposal applicants may be invited for an interaction with the concerned supervisor.
4. The result will be declared within six weeks of receiving the application.

Contributors of VVRSMF
Donors interested in contributing to the fund may contact dhanraj.singh@terisas.ac.in and CC to accounts@terisas.ac.in for further details.