Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI)

The Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI), a scheme launched in September, 2005 by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), aims to encourage small and medium scale industries to take up risk in innovative R&D in biotech sector. The main focus is on supporting proof of concept and early stage research in start-ups and SMEs. Over 100 projects from small and medium entrepreneurs have been supported. SBIRI has deployed $36 million, of which $5 million in grants and $31 million in soft loans, with a debt-to-grant ratio of roughly 6 to 1. Public SBIRI funding has leveraged an additional $33 million in private investment by recipient enterprises as their core contribution, for a total investment of $69 million across approved projects.

Contract Research Scheme (CRS)

BIRAC extends support to academia in the form of grant-in aid for validation of the proof of concept by an industrial partner. It supports the academia-industry interaction between research institutes, universities, public funded research laboratories, governmental organizations, research foundations and companies or industries under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Under this CRS Scheme, public sector research institutes, universities who have already generated or have pre-existing scientifically established proof of concept can seek support for specific research and validation process to be performed by a company partners within a defined time frame. The industry partner in turn would complete the validation phase in a contract research mode. The IP rights belong solely to the academic partner.