Deadline: 31-Jul-23
The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is currently accepting proposals under SBIRI Scheme to support the development, validation and pre-commercialization of products/technologies.
Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public Sector Undertaking, of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India, has been set up to nurture the Biotech Innovation Ecosystem, support Start-ups and SME’s for innovation research and promote affordable product development through public-private partnership.
Priority Areas
- Devices and Diagnostics
- Import substitution of high-end medical equipment, raw materials, consumables, disposables in the area of radiology and imaging, cancer care devices, anaesthetics devices and implants.
- Additive manufacturing or three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting of biocompatible materials, cells, polymers and other components into complex 3D functional living tissues including multi-layered skin, organs, bone, heart tissue, vascular grafts and cartilaginous structures
- Development and use of liquid metal biomaterials including Gallium and galliumbased alloys, liquid metal nano-particles (LMNPs) for diagnostic applications (bioimaging to biosensors).
- Carbon Quantum Dots (CQDs) for biomedical applications like bioimaging, biosensing, electrochemical biosensing, fluorescent and luminescent imaging and photodynamic therapy.
- Vaccines
- Development of new and improved vaccine candidates for viral pathogens (excluding Corona and related) based on emerging Platforms.
- Development of safe and effective nano vaccines for emerging communicable and non-communicable diseases
- Development of safe and novel adjuvants
- Vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and nosocomial infections.
- Drugs and Biotherapeutics
- Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs)
- Repurposing of drugs
- Host directed therapies
- Development of new methods/technologies of drug delivery (e.g., nanocrystalline solid dispersion, drug polymer/peptide conjugate, enabling technologies to improve oral bioavailability), complex generics.
- Personalized medicine
- Agriculture/Plant Science
- Innovative technologies for increasing water use efficiency (Smart irrigation)
- Application of Digitally enabled/Disruptive technologies e.g., Sensors, IoT, 3D printing, Robotics, AI/ Machine learning, UAV/Drones, GIS, GPS, Remote sensing for smart agriculture and disease management
- Soil and Plant health management through rapid, specific and low-cost diagnostic kits for on-site detection of various plant diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, nematodes, etc. to minimize production losses
- Farm mechanization & automation
- Veterinary Sciences
- Development of diagnostics for zoonotic diseases particularly point of care tests (like Brucella, FMDV, Lumpy Skin Diseases etc).
- Biotechnological interventions to improve qualitative or quantitative nutrient absorption and bioavailability for livestock productivity.
- Affordable assisted reproductive technology.
- Vaccines for Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), Mastitis, bovine tuberculosis etc.
- Reagents for veterinary diagnostics
- Aquaculture
- Field usable diagnostic kits for disease and algal toxins relevant to aquaculture
- Bioactive compounds from marine actinobacteria.
- Biotechnological interventions for sustainable development of shrimp farming.
- Development of farmer friendly onsite diagnostics tools and techniques for existing and emerging pathogens in Indian aquaculture system and integrated diagnostic platforms.
- Production of high value human therapeutic fish proteins using fish cell lines
- Energy, environment and secondary agriculture
- Valorisation of lignin to value added chemicals (biological route only)
- Biomanufacturing related areas including pathway engineering, host cell engineering, bioreactor (scale-up) and process media engineering, and active product purification (as distinct from small molecule/ regular chemical separation) for:
- Conversion of lingo cellulosic biomass into chemicals and materials
- Production of advanced biofuels (e.g., butanol, isobutanol, alkane, alkene, terpenes)
- Cosmetics/nutraceuticals/flavour compounds/ APIs
- Circular economy for post-harvest processing and value addition of underutilized crops in India
- Non-destructive quality evaluation, green technologies for storage and pest control, on-line sorting and grading using IoT/sensors etc.
Types of projects supported
- Projects proposing a process/product innovation should have significant potential impact or commercial potential
- Developed process should be sustainable from an economic and environmental point of view and should be scalable
- The Technology Readiness Level (TRL) at the end of the project should be:
- up to TRL 6 (Early-stage validation) for SBIRI
Eligibility Criteria
- The proposals can be submitted:
- Solely by a Company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 or Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 or Joint Ventures either in the form of Company/ LLP
- by any of the above entities jointly with other private or public partner(s) (Universities or Institutes)
- Notes:
- Minimum 51% of the shares of the Company should be held by Indian Citizens holding Indian passport (Indian Citizens do not include Person of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) holders)
- Minimum half of the persons who subscribed their names to the LLP document as its Partners should be Indian citizens.
- The Applicant Company/LLP should either: –
- Have adequate in-house facility to address the project implementation (which shall be evaluated during the site visit) or
- Incubated with any of the recognized Incubation Facility
- For Academic collaborator:
- Eligible Academia shall mean an entity which is having proper establishment documents:
- For Public or Private Institute, University, NGO, or Research Foundation, proper registration/ accreditation from a government body is mandatory like UGC affiliation certification, AICTE, CSIR /DSIR/SIRO certificate etc.
- Eligible Academia shall mean an entity which is having proper establishment documents:
Ineligible
- Applicant who had withdrawn their proposal after approval from Apex committee or whose project was foreclosed due to inadequate funds or any other irregularity would be debarred from submitting fresh proposals for next 3 calls (1 year).
- Proposals submitted by a company/subsidiary/sister concern either as main applicant or collaborator, who has been fund recipient in any of the schemes of BIRAC in past and has defaulted on
- repayment of loan and/or interest, or is irregular with regard to repayment of instalments
- payment of unspent balance (if any) in the earlier BIRAC supported projects
- payment of Royalty to BIRAC would not be considered for financial assistance by BIRAC.
- Proposal of any company having a Director of a defaulting company would not be considered for financial assistance by BIRAC.
For more information, visit BIRAC.