BIRAC announces Challenge Call for Proposals under SBIRI Scheme (India)

Deadline: 30-Nov-22

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) has announced the Challenge Call for Proposals under SBIRI Scheme.

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.

Focus Areas

• HPV related diseases
  • Development of cost effective, validated tests (as per international standards) for screening/ early detection of HPV types (focus on types other than HPV 16/18)
  • Vaccine surveillance, sero-surveillance and infection monitoring tests that would be easy to deploy in population settings such as lateral flow devices
  • Diagnostics- tests that can demonstrate viral activity/functionality, possibly persistence and oncogenicity (focus to be on types other than HPV16/18)
• TB
  • TB vaccines (including therapeutic vaccines)
  • Drugs that can decrease duration of standard TB drug treatment
  • Drugs for treatment of XDR and MDR TB (both lung and extra – pulmonary TB)
  • Aerosol model in Guinea Pig and other tissue specific models
  • Host mediated therapies, adjunct therapies and phage therapy
  • Drugs for Opportunistic mycobacteria
  • Designing novel clinical trials for short duration therapy- bio markers
• Malaria
  • Alternative to Artemisinin (ART) Derivatives
  • Adjunct drug to ART to treat Cerebral Malaria
  • Vaccines for malaria
• Other Areas:
  • Diagnostics based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for detection of TB, malaria and other diseases, management of chronic conditions, delivery of health services and drug discovery
  • Quick diagnostics and treatment (including vaccines) for SARS-2 variants and seasonal viral infections
  • Diagnostics, drugs, therapeutics and vaccines for Neglected and rare diseases
  • Medtech interventions to address challenges of healthcare system at Primary, Secondary and Tertiary level
  • Regenerative Medicines
• Energy, Environment and Secondary Agriculture
  • Carbon capture and utilization using algae and other biotechnological means for producing value-added products
  • Production of highly efficient cellulase enzyme composition and its technoeconomic analysis
  • Valorization of lignin to value added chemicals for reducing cost of 2G ethanol
  • Use of synthetic biology techniques for:
  • conversion of lignocellulosic sugars into chemicals and materials
  • Production of advanced biofuels (e.g., butanol, isobutanol, alkane, alkene, terpenes) and cosmetics/nutraceuticals/flavour compound (e.g., fatty alcohols, paraffin, carotene, vanillin, saffron etc.)
  • Novel way of engineering microbes for simultaneous C5/C6 fermentation
  • Technologies to treat waste (solid, liquid and gaseous) to generate fuel, energy, recycle materials and useful products such as food, feed, polymers, chemicals, etc through biotechnological interventions
  • Technologies (including IT-based) for better storage, grading, packaging, storing and quality control of agricultural/horticultural produce (including organic produce), marine, dairy and poultry to reduce economic losses and value addition
  • Post-harvest value addition of millets including:
  • Improvements in de-hulling efficiency and separation
  • Improvement in shelf-life and packaging of millet-based products
  • Innovative millet-based products
• Agriculture
  • Authentic data collection from the fields using satellite imaging, image-recognition software, IoT, drones (“Kisan drones”) and machine learning, followed by its monitoring and analysis by AI-based applications for crop selection, pest control, precision farming, analyse soil quality, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients, crop assessment, predicting crop losses, estimating yields and economic gains, and information dissemination to farmers
  • Technologies for enhancing water use efficiency (Smart irrigation), energy efficient equipment, soil health management, organic value chain development, innovations in biofertilizers and biopesticides
  • Farm mechanization
  • Technologies contributing to boost production of oilseeds and pulses
• Veterinary Sciences and Aquaculture
  • New Therapeutics for Lumpy skin disease, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), and Brucellosis.
  • Development or validation of assays/kits for use in multiple species for brucellosis and to differentiate infected and vaccinated animals (DIVA) in FMD and brucellosis
  • Point of care diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics for disease management in livestock and aquaculture
  • Technologies for animal reproduction
  • Advanced technologies based on artificial intelligence and biosensors for automated monitoring of fish production/farming
  • Bioactive compounds from marine actinobacteria

Eligibility Criteria

The proposals can be submitted under SBIRI scheme of BIRAC

• 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)
  •  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.
• 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.

For more information, visit https://birac.nic.in/cfp_view.php?id=51&scheme_type=2