IIT Alumni Council announces six Research Centres to make the most modern equipment and research tools available to startups registered with the MegaIncubator. Startups can register with MegaIncubator in addition to their host incubator to be able to roam across partner incubators and affiliate Research Centers.
The Research Centers will be in the areas of Engineered Biomolecules, Quantum Technologies,
Nuclear Sciences, Electric Transportation (including drones), BFSI (including fintech) and
Imaging AI. The Research Centers will either be collocated with or be established in the
vicinity of existing government and academic institutions that specialize in these areas. The Research Centers will be operational in 2021. Incubatee applications will be accepted
from September 5th, and the first batch of incubatees announced on October 2nd, 2020.
“The objective of IIT Alumni Council is to support Prime Minister’s vision of Atma Nirbhar
Bharat through accelerated deployment of cutting edge technologies . Playing a lead role in
revitalizing the incubator and startup ecosystem in high-tech domains is our primary
focus. We are working towards empowering an alumni-led innovation movement
supported by private capital and independent volunteers. The Research Centers as well as
our various other initiatives are in pursuance of this larger goal. In the last six months we
have aggregated over 10 million manhours of alumni time as their contribution to nation
building. This is unprecedented and gives us the confidence to march ahead.” said Ravi
Sharma, President, IIT Alumni Council.
“The MegaIncubator aspires to reach out to any technocrat startup promoter. The
innovative network incubator architecture allows a startup already registered with a home
incubator to leverage additional incubators facilitating access to incremental funding,
infrastructure and markets. We are using the learnings from Zone Startups India and our
global partners to build a phygital incubator framework that every startup will aspire to be
part of.” said Mr Hemant Gupta, an IIT alumnus, MD of Zone Startups India – and head of the
BFSI Research Centre. Zone Startups India manages close to 50,000 square feet of incubator
space in the BSE Building in Fort, Mumbai and the Banaras Hindu University Campus.
IIT ALUMNI COUNCIL
“A dedicated global team has been working 24/7 on the Engineered Biomolecule Research
Centre. Detailed blueprints have been drawn up and the laboratories are in various phases
of execution. The National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology where this will be
collocated has already invested over Rs 150 crores in equipment and infrastructure – which
we plan to upgrade and make available to all startups registered under the MegaIncubator.
The MegaIncubator has already received over twenty incubatee proposals across molecular
diagnostics, enzyme development, genomics, proteomics, biologics and folded protein
simulation” commented Dr Samir Kulkarni, Director of Innovation and National Centre for
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Mumbai. Dr Kulkarni will also head the
Engineered Biomolecule Research Centre.