The University of Hyderabad (UoH) has launched a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) to provide scope for entrepreneurship for its faculty members.
TBI will be a platform for invention, innovation and a transition model between research and product development, and would nourish and promote these ventures through incubation. It would foster research activities and support scientists in becoming entrepreneurs.
University vice-chancellor Seyed E Hasnain said, “UoH is the front runner in acquiring latest developments in the science and technology arena. In India, apart from the IITs, UoH tops the chart in research and development activities.”
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) would provide a fund of Rs 3.96 crore, including Rs 80 lakh for land and building renovation, Rs 30 lakh for office equipment, Rs 1.45 crore for equipment, Rs 1.36 crore towards recurring cost for five years and Rs 5 lakh for other expenditures. UoH would provide the required built-up space complete with utilities, cubicles, lab space and common shared facilities for the incubatees.
“The focus area of TBI would be pharma, biotechnology, renewable energy and information technology,” V Venkata Ramana, Dean, School of Management Studies, told Business Standard. The centre would constitute a project evaluation and monitoring committee to oversee the implementation and execution of projects.
TBI was formally inaugurated on December 21 last year. “We are creating an eco-system to help the prospective entrepreneurs. These are purely research and development activities. Currently, it is for faculty members and external private entrepreneurs. In future we will open it for students,” Ramana said.
“The basic idea of the centre is what we create in the laboratory, we will take it to the market. We will select incubatees depending on their products and business plans,” he said.
The university is evaluating four projects — two internal and two external. “We are also approaching a dozen more incubatees to relocate to the university,” Hasnain said.
UoH is targeting to take 10 incubatees. TBI now has two incubatees including Vitas (pharma) and Crystaline. Crystaline is founded by a Chemistry professor of the university.
