The Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) promotes environment education and creation of awareness among all groups of the society through various programmes. It also provides financial assistance to professional societies and institutions for projects on promotion of environment education and awareness besides providing financial assistance for publications of environment related resource material to achieve this goal.

Objectives of assistance:

i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences

The objective of the programme on "Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences" is to provide a forum to professionals, scientists, environmentalists, other groups of the society to share knowledge and experience on various aspects of environment and for creation of mass environmental awareness. Under this programme, financial assistance is provided to universities, academic institutions / colleges, non-governmental organizations, Government Departments etc. for organization of Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences on identified thrust areas related to environment or any emerging area impinging on technology, innovation in regard to environment.

ii. Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and Institutions

The objective of the programme is to facilitate optimum utilization of expertise available with professional societies and institutions for promotion of environment education and awareness. The programme aims at utilizing the existing capacities while simultaneously providing for enhancing the capacities of such institutions. The projects to be financially supported would interalia include development/extension of exhibition galleries, interpretation centres and education materials relating to ecology, wildlife and environment. The financial assistance is not provided for procurement of capital goods/ equipment. However, some office equipment like computer, projector etc can be purchased if they are incidental to or essential part of exhibition galleries, interpretation centres and educational focused activities. This one time grant is also not available for research, collection and compilation of data and information or to any individual / business houses. Accordingly, the financial assistance would be restricted to above items/activities out of a complete/holistic proposal. The contribution of the organization in implementing the proposal would be one of the criteria for providing grant under this programme. The societies/institutions to be supported under this programme should have high credentials and in-house expertise/experience of working in the environmental education field. Such institutes/societies may also include national history museums, science centres, NGOs, etc. The organizations/institute with inadequate/rudimentary institutional capacity and without desired level of credibility shall not be provided grant under this programme.

iii. Publication of Resource Material Related to Environment

The objective of this programme is to utilize expertise available with professional societies, voluntary organizations, institutions etc. for developing and publication of innovative and high quality resource material for promoting environmental education and awareness by providing financial assistance for development and publication of such material. The publication material must popularize the understanding about the environment, emerging issues and out of the box solutions including innovative approaches for protection and should be relevant and of high standard and should supplement the efforts of the Ministry to promote environment education and awareness.
Under the programme, grant is not provided for publication of newsletters, magazines, journals, periodicals etc. or to any publisher / business house including individuals.

Who are eligible?

• Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences
  
  
  • Any recognized academic / research institution or Government Department / Government undertaking having at least 3 years experience of working in environment related subjects.
  • Any registered voluntary / professional organization / Trust having proven credential, and experience in environmental field and registered under the Societies Registration Act for minimum three years and raising audited accounts.
  • The Proposal should focus on topics relating to the main theme of the event and organization should have in-house expertise in that subject area.

  ii. Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and Institutions and Publication of Resource Material Related to Environment

  • Any voluntary / professional organization or academic / research institution or museum / science centre or Government Department actively involved in the field of environmental education and awareness for a period of at least three years and having developed considerable expertise and excellent track record of working in this area.

Thrust areas:-

Seminars / symposia / workshops / conferences proposals for financial assistance should have adequate focus on environment related subjects and or environmental awareness amongst masses. MoEF has identified the following thrust areas:-

1. Climate Change
2. Bio-diversity

• Conservation of medicinal plants and their sustainable utilization
• Risk and benefits associated with genetically engineered organisms
• Coastal and marine eco-system
• Participatory forest management

3. Trade and environment
4. Industry and sustainable development
• Mine de-commissioning
• Environmental Impact Assessment

5. Water
• Availability, contamination and impacts

6. Environmental health
7. Environmental legislation and enforcement
8. Socio-environmental aspects and environmental economics
9. Environmental Awareness
10. Miscellaneous

How to apply?

i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences

The eligible applicant should submit their application three months in advance in the prescribed form [Annexure-I:- Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences] through the Head of their organization/ Registrar in case of universities to the Additional Director (EE), Smt. Rita Khanna, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi-110003. The form can be either obtained from the Ministry or down loaded from MoEF's Web Site http://moef.nic.in. The proposals which are copies of one another would be outrightly rejected.

ii. Grants-in-aid to Professional Societies and Institutions and Publication of Resource Material related to Environment.

The eligible applicant should submit their application in the prescribed form Annexure-II: - "Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and Institutions", and Annexure-III: - "Publication of resource material related to environment" through the Head of their organization or Registrar in case of Universities to the Additional Director (EE), Smt. Rita Khanna, Ministry of Environment and Forests, Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodi Road, New Delhi-110003. The form can be either obtained from the Ministry or downloaded from MoEF's Web Site http://moef.nic.in.

All the proposals from the North Eastern Region should be forwarded by the State Department of Environment.

Scrutiny of proposals and approval:

i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences

The concerned division of the Ministry would check whether the information furnished in the application is in the standard format or not and is complete in all respects.

The Ministry of Environment & Forests has constituted a Internal Screening Committee for consideration of such proposals, which meets once in Two months. The Committee shall consider those proposals, which are complete in all respect, keeping the following aspects in view while recommending the proposal(s) for financial assistance:


• Credential and standing of the institution / organization.
• The applicant organization has not received any grant under this programme during the financial year in which the proposed event falls. Financial assistance would not be provided more than once in a financial year.
• Application from Government Department / undertaking / academic / research institution has been duly forwarded by Head of the institution.
• The applicant institute has already submitted copies of audited expenditure statement and utilization certificate and also settled other issues, if any, relating to previous grant(s) received by them under the programme from MoEF. In case of NGO valid registration is also must.

ii. Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies & Institutions and Publication of Resource Material related to Environment

The Ministry of Environment & Forests has constituted a Screening Committee for consideration of such proposals. The Committee shall consider those proposals, which are complete in all respect, keeping the following aspects in view while recommending the proposal(s) for financial assistance:


• Credentials and standing of the institution / organization;
• Contents of the proposed publication (in case of financial assistance for publication);
• Plan of activities proposed to be conducted (in case of Grants-in-Aid to Professional Societies and Institutions);
• Whether the application from Government Department / undertaking / academic / research institution has been duly forwarded by Head of the institution;
• Whether the applicant organization has already submitted copies of audited expenditure statement and utilization certificate and also settled other issues, if any, relating to previous grant(s) received by them from MoEF. In case of NGOs, valid registration is also a must.

Quantum of assistance:

i. Seminars / Symposia / Workshops / Conferences

Approximately 50% of the annual budgetary provision for the programme will be for technical proposals and the balance for environmental awareness promotion. The Committee may appropriately apportion the budgetary allocation for the identified theme areas to ensure that all the thrust areas get adequate representation.

Financial assistance is only for organizational expenses (excluding hospitality but include payment of TA/DA to the invited key-speakers only) of the proposed event and not for capital items like construction, equipment, automation etc. Following are the stipulated amounts for various categories of events:

Category                                                                       Amount

1. State level event                                                  A maximum of Rs. 50,000/-
2. National level event                                             A maximum of Rs. 80,000/-
3. International level event                                       A maximum of Rs. 1,00,000/-
(i.e. proposal involving substantial participation from outside the country)

The Internal Screening Committee of MoEF can consider higher quantum of assistance in very exceptional case(s) on merits. However, the apportionment shall not exceed 20% of the total annual budgetary provision of the programme.

The proposals for financial assistance for publication of proceedings shall be considered for a maximum grant of Rs. 50,000.00 depending on the quality of the proceedings, number of pages and copies to be printed, cost of publication and earning from sale of the copies and provided that previous grant, if any, released by MoEF to the applicant organization has been fully settled in terms of expenditure statement, utilization certificate, copies of proceedings etc.

(ii) Grants-in-Aid to the Professional Societies & Institutions and Publication of Resource Material Related to Environment

Maximum financial assistance to any organization would be limited to Rs. 5,00,000/- (Rs. Five lakhs only)

Submission of Proposals : Cut off date

• The cut off date for receiving proposals in the Ministry seeking grant are:
• 7th March for the period April and May.
• 7th May for the period June and July
• 7th July for the period August and September
• 7th September for the period October and November
• 7th November for the period December and January
• 7th January for the period February and March.