Indian Music Experience Museum Research Grant 2026–27
Reframing Indian Music through Gender and Memory
The Indian Music Experience Museum is pleased to announce its inaugural Research Grant supporting new scholarship in Indian music. As India’s only interactive music museum, IME is committed not only to preserving musical heritage, but to also studying and interrogating it. We want to encourage those asking the questions, and researchers to examine whose stories have been amplified, whose have been erased, and how history might be retold more equitably.
The IME Research Grant is part of the larger Women’s History, Art and Music initiative at the museum.
This grant seeks to seed original, intersectional research into three interconnected areas:
- The contributions of women and gender-marginalised people in folk and tribal traditions
- The complex, often silenced histories of hereditary professional musicians
- The evolution of the female artists across classical and contemporary music forms
We invite proposals that challenge patriarchal and hegemonic narratives, foreground lived experience, and expand the frameworks through which Indian music is studied and understood.
IME will award three grants of ₹1,00,000 each to independent scholars, researchers as well as artists and practitioners looking to interrogate these histories, for a one-year period beginning June 2026. Proposed outcomes may include research papers, monographs or comprehensive interpretive essays. We are particularly interested in projects that can be translated into a museum context—informing exhibitions, public programming, and curatorial storytelling that advances inclusive knowledge building.
Through this initiative, IME seeks to catalyse rigorous scholarship that not only documents musical histories, but reshapes them with gender parity for future generations.
Who Should Apply?
IME welcomes applications from independent scholars, researchers, curators, artists, writers, and community knowledge-holders interested in re-examining Indian music through the lens of gender and intersectionality. We invite proposals from both early-career and established practitioners, whether institutionally affiliated or working independently. This grant is intended for those seeking to foreground the contributions of women and gender-marginalised people, explore the layered histories of hereditary musical communities, or reinterpret musical traditions in ways that challenge dominant narratives. In keeping with the aims of this programme, we strongly encourage women and gender minorities to apply and contribute to shaping more inclusive musical histories for public knowledge and museum contexts.
Eligibility Criteria — IME Research Grant 2026–27
- Applicants must be individual researchers, scholars, curators, artists, cultural practitioners or writers with a demonstrated interest in music research, gender studies, oral history, ethnomusicology, or related fields.
- All applications must be submitted in English this year to ensure equitable review by the advisory committee. Applicants must also commit to submitting quarterly plans and reviews in English. The final outcome, however, can be in any language and IME will work with the grantee to ensure that the work is translated into English.
- Applicants must be at least 18 years of age at the time of application and able to undertake a one-year research project from June 2026 to June 2027.
- We strongly encourage women and gender minorities to apply, reflecting the grant’s mission to address patriarchal silences and amplify marginalised voices.
- Proposals must be original, independent research and not currently funded by other major grants; joint or collaborative applications are permitted but must identify a single principal investigator.
- Applicants should describe relevant qualifications or experience (academic, professional, or community-based), though formal degrees are not required—projects led by independent or early-career researchers are welcome.
- Applicants must commit to producing one or more of the expected outcomes (e.g.,research papers, monographs or comprehensive interpretive essays) and be willing to engage with the museum’s public and curatorial programming.
- Applicants must ensure the proposed research is feasible within the one-year grant period and provide a clear work plan and budget outline.
Grant-Making Process & Expectations
All applications will be reviewed by a jury of experts appointed by the Indian Music Experience Museum. Proposals will be evaluated on originality, methodological rigour, feasibility within the one-year timeframe, and their potential to contribute meaningfully to Indian music history, museum-based interpretation and public knowledge.
Application Deadline: 8 April 2026
Announcement of selected Grantees: mid-May 2026
Grant Period commences: June 2026
Each grant of ₹1,00,000 will be disbursed in quarterly installments. Continued disbursement is contingent upon the submission of a brief quarterly report outlining work undertaken, objectives achieved, and a clear plan for the upcoming quarter. Grantees are expected to maintain steady progress, uphold ethical research standards, and remain open to periodic engagement with IME’s curatorial team to inform exhibitions, public programmes, or knowledge-building initiatives within the museum context.
Please click on the Apply button below to send in your application. For more information, questions or doubts please do reach out to research@indianmusicexperience.org.