Webinar on Startup Ecosystem and Grant Writing organized by BioNEST- PU

Chandigarh July 14, 2020 :

The Bioincubator of the Panjab University, BioNEST-PU organized an online interactive session-cum-webinar entitled, “Introduction to Startup Ecosystem and Grant Writing”. The webinar was hosted by the incubator to enable young startups and researchers learn about opportunities for growth in the startup ecosystem. The speakers aimed at enumerating the opportunities in the startup ecosystem available for life-science innovators, to help young innovators with the basics of grant-writing for flawless project proposals.

Prof. Raj Kumar,Vice Chancellor of the Panjab University opened the webinar with encouraging words for all the researchers on-board to keep working for their growth from wherever they are. He also highlighted how the Bioincubator of the University has been actively functioning even during the lockdown with innovators getting involved in the online seminars, applying for various projects, and receiving government funding. Professor Raj Kumar proudly informed the audience that the BioNEST has garnered financial support of over 1.27 Cr from its corporate allies under industry-academia bonding. He also emphasized on the need for industry-academia collaborations and why these collaborations are needed now more than ever.

Dr. Rohit Sharma, the Project Leader of BioNEST-PU informed how their team had received an overwhelming response for the webinar in just one day after it was announced online. “The webinar got an inquisitive audience of more than 100 participants and that shows how excited and interested we all are to find out solutions to the problem of unemployment, the youth is looking forward to opportunities for becoming job-providers.” Dr. Sharma said. Students and faculty from not just the university, but from the neighboring institutes as well as educational institutes from all over the country attended the session and remained present online throughout.

The speaker for the webinar, Dr. Ashutosh Pastor is managing Startup Incubation at the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is supporting implementation of various funding programs for innovators and entrepreneurs in the Biotechnology domain like BIRAC BIG, SEED, LEAP, Pfizer-IIT Delhi Innovation and IP program, and many other government and CSR funded programs. Dr. Vikas Pandey, co-Founder and Managing Director of Valetude Primus Healthcare also joined as a guest speaker and shared his journey and learning’s as a startup.

Dr. Sharma informed that the BioNEST-PU has also been selected for a greater role to be played as a regional center for i-TTO. Innovation Technology Transfer office (i-TTO) is a regional TTO established at Foundation for Innovative and Technology Transfer (FITT) under National Biopharma Mission of BIRAC with a mandate to assist the individual innovators, startup, bioincubators for IP, technology transfer and Academia- Industry collaborations. Dr Tripta Dixit, Deputy Project Manager at I-TTO briefed the audience about the significance of iTTO.