FAQs What is the IIT Pilot program? The program was incepted to increase the pool of motivated individuals for finding scalable Internetbased solutions to address local issues. We invite teams from IITs to submit proposals around broad themes (mobile, cloud, or indic) and concepts that leverage web technologies. The teams can have up to 5 students and a faculty member. The teams are encouraged to leverage courses offered as part of their respective curricula. The selected proposal will be provided funding. The grant money is a specific purpose grant, meant to be entirely utilized for the proposed project, and there are no legal requirements once a project is selected for funding.
Who is the Pilot Project team? The IIT Pilot program is managed by a team comprising of Google employees and/or internal/external experts.
What types of proposals are funded through this program? ○
The intent of the program is to encourage products/solutions development and innovative thinking in Computer Science, Engineering, and related fields. We ask applicants to categorize their proposals into mobile, cloud, or indic categories to support the development of the digital ecosystem in India.
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The pilot project team will not be able to respond to questions presubmission asking if a specific topic or project is of interest to Google.
Who is eligible to apply for the pilot program grant? ○
Institutions: ■
We are conducting this program in the following five institutions: IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Madras.
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Our funding is structured as unrestricted gifts to the Institutions. We cannot process these grants to other institutions (e.g. notforprofits institutions, hospitals, nondegreegranting research institutes, etc) even if they are affiliated with a university.
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Faculty Members ■
Each Faculty member on a proposal must be associated full time with one of the 5 IITs mentioned above.
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The primary role of a faculty member is fiduciary in nature. Beyond this, the faculty member managing the project, or such a lead can be taken by one of the student members of the team. The team structure and assignment of roles within the team is up to the team.
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We allow faculty members at all levels to apply. We do not allow applications from faculty members on behalf of students, postdocs, or others who are not eligible to apply themselvesthe project must be directed primarily by a faculty member.
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The Faculty member on a proposal is the point person for all communications regarding the proposal, including funding decisions. All emails regarding the application will go to the Faculty member, who is responsible for notifying team members and university administrators if needed.
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There are no limits on the number of proposals that can be submitted by different Faculty members or students from the same university.
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Restrictions ■
All award/grant payments and recipients will be reviewed for compliance with relevant US and international laws, regulations and policies. Google reserves the right to withhold funding that may violate laws, regulations or our policies.
What are Google contacts and Google mentors, and what roles do they play? ○
Google contacts ■
A Google contact is someone at Google who knows the Faculty member [and/or the team] and is generally familiar with their work in the topic area of the proposal. A Google contact may not have advised on the current proposal, but may be able to provide insight into the Faculty member’s prior work or suggest others at Google who might be able to review the proposal. The best way to find Google contacts who may be working in relevant areas is through professional interactions that typically occur in conferences, workshops, paper publications, and personal networking.
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Google Mentors ■
A Google Mentor is a Googler who has knowledge of the broad themes of the project.
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All funded projects will be assigned a Google mentor. A mentor is expected to do the following: ●
Provide input to the team on proposal (project) content
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Follow up with the project team regularly and ensure the project is on track
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Serve as the point person for communication between the project team and Google and participate in any checkins instigated by the project team
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Act as point of contact for the team for questions related to Google or the project
What are considered eligible expenses for this program? ○
Standard grant amounts
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The onetime grant that will be given to the institute is up to 5 lakh INR.
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A honorarium or fellowship can be provided to students as part of the budget, at the discretion of the Faculty member. This has to be covered under the 5 lakh INR grant amount.
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We trust the Faculty members to provide a reasonable estimate of the costs, but we do reserve the right to verify those costs during the proposal review process.
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Costs not supported by the program ■
We do not support any salaries or any external costs through this program. This is a grant to the qualifying team which will use this amount for the purposes of the program.
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We have a strict policy against supporting overhead or indirect costs through the program. Since the grants are structured as unrestricted gifts to universities, and Google does not own any IP resulting from the grants, we do not allow overhead or other indirect or administrative costs to be charged against this program funds. Please do not include such items in the grant’s budgets.
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If your project will require additional funding from another source (e.g. for specialized hardware), it may be helpful to include the same in your proposal budget section and also state if you have already secured this funding.
Can I apply for hardware that isn't yet available to the public for purchase (e.g. Google Glass)? ○
We evaluate proposals based on whether the work can be done at the time of funding. Google will not assist for purchase of any hardware or software which may be required to give shape to the idea. Any costs so incurred by the team will be at their own expense, or the cost of the same should be within the grant amount.
What is the proper format for proposal? ○
We do not have strong feelings on formatting (margins, font, etc), so we just ask that you use your best judgment. We would prefer for proposals to respect a minimum 10pt font size and 1inch (2.5cm) margins. Our reviewers value readability.
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Please note that we cannot under any circumstances accept proposals that contain confidential or proprietary information. Proposals that leave the box on the application form that asks Faculty members to confirm that the proposal contains no confidential information will be rejected without any further review.
How are the grant recipients selected? ○
We select the grant recipients through a thorough and competitive review process. All proposals go through a review process that includes reviews from subjectmatter experts across the company and committees led by Googlers and external reviewers. The review process may also
include a presentation of the proposed project by the team via teleconference, in person, or via videoconference.
When and how are decisions announced? ○
Decisions will be announced by first week of September. Decisions will be communicated to the Faculty member listed on each proposal via email. It is the Faculty member’s responsibility to notify the team members about funding decisions.
What happens after the pilot program grant recipients are announced? ○
If a proposal is selected for funding, the Faculty member will receive an email notification of the details of the grant. A followup email, a few days later will contain information on how to begin the payment process. All payments will be made in INR either electronically or by wire.
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Due to the large number of submissions we receive, we cannot provide individual feedback on proposals not selected for funding.
Can I speak to someone from the pilot program team to ask additional questions? ○
You can reach out to us via
[email protected]. Due to the volume of emails we may receive, we may not be able to respond to the questions where the answers are already part of the Terms of Service including the FAQ.
