Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Awards, 2020

SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions) has established three national awards for innovative student projects in engineering, biotechnology, agriculture, pharmacy, material science, and other applied technological domains. These awards were given by honourable vice president Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu at Vigyan Bhawan on July 06, 2019.

Last date for submission of entries is November 10, 2019

The awards will be given to young student innovators in the following category::

Techpedia (www.techpedia.in) at SRISTI invites entries for these awards by November 10, 2019.

Student projects which address an important social, environmental or technological problem faced by masses or disadvantaged people/sectors/spaces or micro and small enterprises, or have the potential to impact a pressing national need are invited. The applications may be made by the past or present students of technical institutions/universities. On behalf of the students who have already passed out and left the Institute/ University, the faculty member, who supervised the project, can also apply but awards would be given only to students willing to take their ideas forward.

A: MLM (More from less from Many) Award: This award will be given to the innovations which use significantly less material/energy to create sustainable solutions. Frugality and creating value for many by using lesser material, energy, and resource could be the key focus while bench-marking such innovations.

B: SRISTI social technological Award: The student projects which have demonstrable proof of concept/ prototype having a significant amount of novelty and social applications are eligible for this award. Projects completed in or after 2017 can be submitted by the students or their faculty supervisors on their behalf.

C: Technological edge award: A breakthrough or a significant technological advance in any field of engineering, pharmacy, medical, agricultural, or other disciplines will entitle a student to qualify for this award.

D: BIRAC-SRISTI award for biotechnological/medical/healthcare innovation: A technology having the potential for reaching the masses and/or addressing a felt social need or making it extremely affordable compared to the available solution and technologies having prospects of going to market to be preferred for selection. Up to fifteen of the selected innovations may be given a grant of Rs.15 lac each and another 20-30 idea may be granted one lac each for taking the idea forward after they add value to grassroots innovations in Biotechnological Innovation Ignition School (BIIS) or sustainable practices at SRISTI, Ahmedabad.

For the awards in biotechnological, life sciences, medical devices, agriculture, pharmacy, etc., the applications can be submitted online by the postgraduate students at BIRAC website. These applications will be titled as SITARE-GYTI award from September 20, 2019 onwards.

The full project report of the shortlisted projects will be needed for final evaluation. Video, photographs, test reports, comparative advantage vis a vis existing solutions in that domain, literature & patent review, etc., may be attached.

The last date for submission of entries is November 10, 2019

Students in final year Ph.D. may be allowed an extra year ( after completing a Ph.D.) to work on their award if they wish to in life sciences. All the shortlisted entries of the winners will be displayed in March 2020. The submitted entries will also be hosted on www.techpedia.in database with due acknowledgment of the name of the team members, supervisor, college, department and any contact information provided during the application.

The exhibition will be visited by leading policymakers and practitioners of the country. The prototype may be retained to be displayed in a permanent exhibition likely to be developed soon at the national level with due acknowledgment of innovators, supervisors and the concerned institution.

The nominations have to be submitted at http://www.techpedia.in/award but only abstract of the content submitted along with innovator detail would be published at the site or shared otherwise. If the students wish to have incubation support, they should clearly indicate the same in their nomination form. SIIE-Bio-NEST incubator supported by BIRAC, DBT, Government of India at SRISTI Innovations welcomes applications from innovative biotech researchers. For those interested in IPR support, assistance from a network of pro bono attorneys can be mobilized at concessional term.

We also invite applications for three Biotechnological Innovation Ignition Schools for three weeks for mainly UG students but others can also apply at SITARE-BIIS dates are November 13-December 4, 2019, January 13-February 3, and February 17-March 9, 2020 at SRISTI lab, Grambharati, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

For any query, please contact Team Techpedia-GYTI at gyti.techpedia@sristi.org, Call us at +919099258492.

For awards given this year please visit www.techpedia.in, www.sristi.org, biis@sristi.org initiative.

Looking forward to your enthusiastic cooperation to make India Innovative to encounter the unmet social needs.