Researcher to Entrepreneur

One of the biggest struggles of researchers is funding. It is impossible to do quality research without adequate financial resources. The researcher keeps applying to all possible places for funding. But the government seems to be of the opinion that any research that ends only in discovery is not adding any value to society but has limited application and does not need encouragement. We know that many of the postgraduate (PG) and doctoral (PhD) research findings stay comfortably in the thesis; not many are published either. Every innovation has to be translated and be a beneficiary to the end user, then only there is value to the money invested. With this perspective in mind, the Indian government has initiated the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM). The AIM scrutinizes the translatable capabilities of the innovation, funds it, and mentors it in the incubation centres. The innovation that is incubated now becomes a start-up. Many scientists are now entrepreneurs by taking their innovations to the market place with the help of the government of India. Also many investors and Indian government has initiated the Atal Innovation Mission at NITI Aayog, National Institution for Transforming India, Government of India. The main objective of this position is to foster entrepreneurship and innovation centers in India. The government recognizes the need to create world-class incubators in various regions of India with adequate physical infrastructure for operational space and capital equipment, availability of industry experts to mentor start-ups, access to seed capital, training, and other essential components required for innovative start-up to encourage start-ups, business planning support, and industry partners. Similarly, AIM supports the creation of AICs (Atal Incubation Centres) to encourage innovative start-ups as they attempt to evolve into scalable and sustainable businesses. The scheme aims to promote and create world-class incubators in India’s specific areas/ sectors such as health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation, etc. These incubators would encourage and support innovative technology-based start-ups with applications and/or impacts in key sectors of the economy. Incubators would provide start-ups with the necessary guidance, infrastructure, technical support networks, and access to investors and facilitate many other resources that a start-up might need to survive and scale. Successful applicants will receive a grant of INR 10 million for capital and operating expenses to establish an AIC for a maximum of 5 years. The exact amount of the grant is decided by AIM based on the application and business plan according to the current system. AIM reserves the right to change the system as needed without notice. A duly constituted examination and selection committee will evaluate the application. Selected candidates have to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) and Bond (Annexure VI and VII) with AIM. NITI Aayog Government has set up many initiatives to promote this objective. Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP); Bangalore Bio-Innovation Centre are some such centres in Bangalore. The C-CAMP supported by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India, is a catalyst of cutting-edge research and innovation in existence since 2009. C- CAMP is likewise an appendage of the Bangalore Life Science cluster (BLiSC). They speed up bioscience research and entrepreneurship by supporting research development training and services in ultramodern technology platforms. The bio brooder at C-CAMP is promoted by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the BioNest scheme and NITI Aayog under the established incubation centre (EIC) AIM blueprint. A fully equipped workshop room is critical for some foundations to take the globe rolling from the beginning in the conditions of research projects. With the aim of a permissive early start boost accompanying a plug-and-play feature, C-CAMP determines an approach to a completely out-fitted testing broom room accompanying a limited and big tabletop in addition to approaching extreme end supplies. C-CAMP supports innovative start-up companies and scientific entrepreneurs in all life sciences sectors through bio-incubation and has, incubated over 20 start-ups/ innovators. Bangalore Bioinnovation Centre (BBC) is a joint initiative of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, and the Department of Electronics, Information Technology (IT), Biotechnology (BT), and Science and Technology (S&T), Government of Karnataka. It collaborates with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS), a nodal centre for implementing schemes of the Department of Electronics, IT, BT, and S&T, the Government of Karnataka, and its start-up cell. It is a state-of-the-art translational research and entrepreneurship centre catering to all the needs of start-ups in life science.

Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) encourages its researchers to take advantage of these facilities and develop themselves to serve society.