Deadline: 31-Oct-22
Are you a budding Entrepreneur? Here is your opportunity to apply for the 11th Call of NIDHI PRAYAS, which is Open! Get up to INR 10 lakh Proof-of-Concept Grant for translating an idea into a prototype with holistic support from the facilities and fabrication labs!
The NIDHI-Promotion and Acceleration of Young and Aspiring technology entrepreneurs (NIDHI-PRAYAS) is one of the programs introduced under NIDHI Scheme by DST, GoI that focuses on addressing the idea to prototype funding gap. This is a program designed to attract a large number of youngsters to come forward to try out their ideas and try to see if they will work in real life business situations.
NIDHI- PRAYAS Program as the scheme suggest is to help – young and aspiring innovators. The focus is to provide support/funding from idea to prototype.
This grant, therefore, will primarily be utilised by the innovators to convert their ideas into prototype. It cannot, however, be used for supporting:-
- Any institute/organization(not being a startup company) to develop an IP into prototype.
- Any innovators working/pertaining to an institute/organization for converting their IP into prototype.
- Any idea which is part of academic research work carried out at the institute/personal level.
- Any idea that is developed into prototype where the IP could vest with any institute/organization.
Focus Areas
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Agriculture
- Energy
- IoT
- Cleantech
- AI/ML & AR/VR
Program Benefits
- Grant-In-Aid: Upto 10 lakhs product development grant for 12 months
- Mentorship 101: Tailored mentoring in areas like IP, Legal, Regulatory, Business Development.
- Co-Working Space: Access to co-working space, common infras, and administrative support.
- Lab Access: Access the digital fabrication lab to turn your ideas into prototypes.
- Further Assistance: Specific functional and domain knowledge sessions to build better
- Scale Up: Opportunity to pitch for follow-on funding under other KIIT-TBI’s programs.
Eligibility Criteria
- Startup less than 2 years and wants to develop the prototype for a new product, for which they may have not received similar kind of support.
- Not eligible for PRAYAS:
- Student applicants pursuing long term research projects like doctoral research projects or similar projects will not be supported
- Professors or Academicians engaged in teaching with any academic or R&D institute.
- The project should involve physical product development. The projects relating to software development and those involving pure academic research are not eligible.
- The priority areas for supporting innovations under NIDHI PRAYAS program are manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, clean-tech, energy, water and Internet of Things (IoT) and other technology areas.
- Preference may be given to those innovators
- Who have bootstrapped or have got co-investment commitment.
- Who have clear road map for commercialization or startup creation.
- Women innovators
- Young innovators
- If the innovator is pursuing to build a prototype from their institute/organization IP, then in that case innovator will take no objection certificate from the appropriate authority of their institute/organisation for use/IP transfer / ownership in favour of the innovator/startup.
- If the applicant is studying /working in an institute/organization, they should get a no objection certificate from that respective institute/organization for applying to NIDHI PRAYAS.
- The NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be registered for the pre-incubation or incubation program at the TBI for the entire duration of the program, after going through the TBI’s selection process.
- NIDHI-PRAYAS grantee should be fully committed to work towards the prototype development for which the support is being sought and should not treat this as a stop gap arrangement to support any other pursuits.
What Are The Broad Parameters For Selection Of Technology?
- Preference shall be given for
- Technology business ideas with larger technology uncertainties and/ or long gestation periods,
- Technology business ideas leveraging technology or IP from publicly funded research or academic organizations,
- Technology business ideas with considerable potential for social impact.
- Entrepreneurs pursuing business ideas with no or marginal technology innovation or those with very short journey (i.e less than 6 months) to commercialization are discouraged to apply.
For more information, visit https://kiitincubator.in/nidhi-prayas/