Submit Proposals for Inclusive Technology Business Incubators (India)

The initiative aims to inculcate the spirit of Innovation & Entrepreneurship (I&E) amongst the students, innovators and entrepreneurs, encourage and support innovative ideas, start- up creation through incubation. It is expected that students, innovators and entrepreneurs will take up innovative ideas/projects and with mentoring support from the academic and startup ecosystem, try to build a startup around the innovative idea/project. The outcome of the i-TBI shall be converting ideas into startups. i-TBI (Inclusive TBI) would also create a culture of innovation & entrepreneurship in the Host Institution (HI) and nearby geographies. I-TBI will be equipped with grants-in-aid funding support to innovators to convert ideas to prototype and prototype to startups.

Objectives

• To motivate and encourage institutions primarily from the technical domain to create a culture of innovation driven entrepreneurship among academia including students and faculties.
• To focus on institutes specially in the regions which do not have the desired innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
• To build a vibrant innovation ecosystem that leads to the creation of a startup culture in the nearby regions.
• To enable and build a network between academia, investors, mentors, industries and other institutions.
• To provide grants-in-aid funding support to innovative ideas and convert them into prototypes and further to startups.

Funding Information

• The total  funding for i-TBI would be capped at Rs.500 lakhs for 3 years. After 3 years iTBI should aim to convert the facility into a full fledged incubator/technology business incubator and explore scaleup opportunities from different funding agencies such as AIM, MEITY, DBT, etc including DST for NIDHI TBI scheme. The institute and the iTBI shall aim to make this center self-sustainable. This shall be a key evaluation parameter for scaleup grant. The budget mentioned in the guidelines is the maximum limit of support from DST.

The salient features of i-TBI would be as follows

• As per DST funding guidelines, DST will provide the necessary capital fund to establish the infrastructure of i-TBI. To this effect, DST will require resolution to be passed by the governing board highest authority of the HI specifying that HI agrees to host i-TBI and provide between upto 10,000 sq ft (minimum 7,000 sqft) of built up space to host i-TBI in the campus. The space provided should be for incubation facility, prototyping laboratory, meeting rooms, recreational facilities etc. HI shall also agree to establish separate section 8 company to professionally manage the i-TBI and will execute a lease agreement between HI and new entity, to lease the space earmarked for the iTBI to new entity at no cost or at minimum rate for 10 years or beyond. DST expects that HI will continue to support and run the TBI after DST’ score support is over. I-TBI will reserve 60% space for incubation.
• For an i-TBI, it is mandatory to have a professional team with a full time Head/CEO, and an incubation manager/ecosystem enabler (these two resources should not be faculties and should have experience in startups/startup ecosystems). Also the newly established entity must open a separate interest bearing bank account for proper accounting of the grant.
• The newly established section 8 entity must constitute a board with following composition:-i) Patent Expert/consultant, ii) Alumni Entrepreneurs, iii) Experts from nearby industry association, iv) Startup Ecosystem expert, v) Expert from Financial institution/investor/angel investor/nearby bank, vi) DST representative, and vii) Head of nearby existing Technology business incubator, vii) This board can be chaired by Head of the institute.
• Host Institute shall make available the existing laboratories/facilities of the Institute for the startup enterprises. In addition to these labs, FAB lab/makerspace, Design and dies lab must be established at the i-TBI for prototyping, DST will support to establish such labs at i-TBI.
• New equipment, if any, urgently required by the innovator or start-up may be purchased out of the plan budget. A list of such equipment with budgetary quotes should be provided along with the proposal.
• The iTBI should be capable of accommodating at least 30 innovative ventures/Startups. The center should develop capabilities for providing and efficiently monitoring grants to incubatees for prototypes development and startup operations.
• The grants-in-aid shall be transferred to the section 8 company formed for the i-TBI. In case, if there is a delay in formation of section 8 company because of administrative reasons, the grant initially can be released to HI, with a commitment to have a separate accounting system for the grant till the section 8 company is in place. But, the next installment shall be transferred only to the section 8 company created by the HI for iTBI in its new interest-bearing account.

For more information, visit DST.