Bharat Startup OS
Department of Biotechnology (DBT) · Part B

Promoting Academic Research Conversion to Enterprise

PACE

BIRAC grants for academia to develop biotech proofs-of-concept and validate them with industry partners — up to ₹50 lakh under AIR.

Grant Ideation Up to ₹50 lakh (AIR); no ceiling under CRS

Overview & Objective

BIRAC grants for academia to develop biotech proofs-of-concept and validate them with industry partners — up to ₹50 lakh under AIR.

Key Benefits & Funding

  • PACE provides for BIRAC contribution of up to 100% of the project cost.
  • Financial support under AIR: Total cost of the project must not exceed ₹50 lakh (non-recurring cost must not exceed 10% of the total cost)
  • Financial support under CRS: Funding in the form of grant is provided to both academic as well as industrial partners. There is no ceiling to the funding under CRS.

Eligibility Criteria

  • For AIR: Academia (Public or Private Institute, University, NGO, or Research Foundation) with a well-established support system for research shall be the primary applicant. Collaboration with Industry/LLP is optional in this component.
  • For CRS: Mandatory collaboration with Industry/LLP is needed. The Industry collaborator must have a minimum of 51% of the shares of the Company held by Indian Citizens holding Indian passport.

How to Apply

Call for Applications are announced twice a year (1st April – 15th May; and 1st September – 15th October). Besides two regular calls, BIRAC may also announce need-based additional calls whose terms and conditions would be worked out separately and described in their respective RFPs.