The Committee for Development of Social Sciences and Humanities in Pakistan” (CDSSHP) is an advisory committee established by Higher Education Commission (HEC) in 2003. Eminent Social Scientists from various higher education institutions throughout the country were nominated as members of the Committee. The first meeting of the Committee chaired by Dr.Atta-ur-Rahman, Chairman, HEC was held on April 7-8, 2003. Dr.Najma Najam was appointed as the first Chairperson of the committee (2003-2006) while Dr.Ishrat Husain served as the Chairman of the committee from 2006 to 2009. Dr.Nasser Ali Khan, Director, Institute of Management Sciences (IMSciences) Peshawar  has been appointed as third Chairman of CDSSHP. The primary objective of the Committee is to develop the existing level of faculty and to create an environment that would be conducive to research and development activities in Social Sciences & Humanities sector. These essentially fell into these major areas :

           i.         Encouraging R&D in Social Sciences

      To identify diverse social and human issues in Pakistan through understanding and initiating plans for social transformation by encouraging research & development.

         ii.         Faculty development

      To improve and develop faculty of Social Sciences & Humanities through indigenous and foreign Scholarships.

       iii.         Institutional and infrastructure development

      To upgrade the existing resources and provision of institutional support to various departments/Centre of Excellence/Institutes of public sector universities across the country.

        iv.         Quality Assurance Standards

      To review quality assurance, academic, faculty appointment, journals and other standards as they are applicable in the domain of Humanities and Social Sciences.

          v.         Status Reports

      To review and prepare reports on the state of education and research in different disciplines of Humanities and Social Sciences.

   THEMATIC RESEARCH GRANT PROGRAMME (Phase –II)

Invitation of Proposals

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan (SSHRCP), Higher Education Commission, Pakistan has initiated the Thematic Research Grant Programme in 2009 to address the contemporary issues of the country. The research scholars who have theoretical, conceptual, methodological and policy orientation background may apply for grants under subject programme. The research projects may belong to any one of the Social Sciences & Humanities disciplines or may be interdisciplinary in nature. Groups or individual Researchers from Public/ Private sector universities can submit their proposals against one of the following themes :

 1.      Sustainable Human Development, poverty and Inequality

2.      Costs and opportunities of Pakistan's changing age structure : Demographic dividend, aging and urbanization

3.      The State in Pakistan : Internal and External Challenges

4.      Ensuring human rights and cultural diversity : The role of media and civil society

Eligibility

Ø  All Faculty Members & Researchers holding full time position of Public Sector Universities

Ø  All Faculty Members & Researchers holding full time position of following selected Private Sector Universities :

Financial Assistance

HEC Provides research grants to a maximum of Rs.10 million for each research project. (depending upon the Impact Factor of Principal Investigator)

 Procedure

Research Proposals submitted to HEC for funding will be evaluated by a group of expert. Seminar presentation by Principal Investigators may be held of shortlisted research proposals.

 Duration

Grants will be awarded for one year only.

 Submission

Kindly send four copies of application duly recommended by the Head of institution (e.g. Universities/ DAIs/ Research institutes)

Application form

The last date for submission of proposals is 15^th September 2011

SULAIMAN AHMAD

Deputy Director (Academics)

Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan

Higher Education Commission

H-9, Islamabad

slahmad@hec.gov.pk

Phone : 051-90402428, 90402114

Fax : 051-90402429

HIGHER EDUCATION COMMISSION PAKISTAN Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Pakistan (SSHRCP)

Invitation of Proposals for Thematic Research Grant Program

Click here to download the details of the themes.

Application for Grants and Selection Procedure:

Higher Education Commission will organize research competitions annually and fund selected research projects. A Call for Proposals will be announced every year. This announcement will be carried out in the National News Papers and HEC web site. Research proposals will generally be invited on issues of the economic relevance to Pakistan. The general guidelines for application and selection criteria will be highlighted: 

Guidelines for Funding and Application:

1. Grants will be awarded for one year only.
2. Applicants must be a full time teacher/researcher of public/private sector universities/ DAIs/ research institutions.
3. An applicant cannot submit more than one project in a year.
4. Steering Committee Member cannot be a project holder or a researcher.
5. A formal application must be made by the institution (e.g. Universities, research institutes) with which the applicant is affiliated and if the project proposal is funded, the institution will be responsible for the administration of the grant. No funds will be paid directly to the individuals.

Proposal Review:

Selection will be made on a competitive basis. The Research Advisory Panel (RAP) of SSHRCP comprising of renowned Social Scientist will evaluate the research proposals.

Review/Approval Mechanism: 

• Project Proposal: The sub-committee for each theme would conduct Peer reviewers to identify suitable projects and the Principal Investigators of approved proposals would be invited to present their possible research ideas.
• Interim Report: There would be a mid term review where a larger review committee of professionals would get together to critically evaluate papers and provide feedback to the researchers at a workshop.
• Final Evaluation: Final evaluation would be linked to a conference: “annual conference of social sciences” one session would be dedicated to these researchers to present their papers for peer review and comments

Evaluation Criteria:

All applications will be received by SSHRCP at HEC and will be forwarded to the Evaluation Committee for peer review. The evaluation of the research proposals will be based on:

1. Clarity of the proposed research question
2. Originality
3. Use of the most modern and appropriate techniques.
4. Cost effectiveness.  

Guidelines for Proposal Submission:

1. Proposals must include the following components:
2. A cover sheet clearly specifying the project title, names of principal researchers and e-mail address.
3. An abstract of no more than 200 words outlining the significance of the research and the methodology to be used.
4. A research proposal of no more than ten (10) doubled- spaced pages.
5. A brief survey of literature and some indication of the availability of data.
6. A bibliography of relevant literature.
7. Short CVs of participating researcher/s (not more than ten pages).
8. Information on how many other project/s the researchers/s will be involved at the same time as the proposed study.
9. The proposed budget on a separate sheet in the format below. If more than one institute is involved, the budget must clearly state the expenses for each institute in respect of all cost-heads, viz.  
   

• Remigrations
• Field Survey/Data Collection
• Books, Stationary and Software
• Communications
• Travel for workshop/conference
• Subtotal
• Overheads (up to 2% of the subtotal)
• Grand Total