Announcement SITARE-GYTI 2022

SITARE Scheme

Students Innovations for Translation & Advancement of Research Explorations (SITARE) Scheme is aimed at supporting innovative student projects in the area of biotechnology. The scheme’s mandate is to promote and encourage young students for embracing translational research to develop innovative products and technologies addressing unmet needs. SITARE-GYTI Award Grant is not a usual research fellowship. The scheme also provides an opportunity for orientation, training and mentoring through residential workshops etc.

The scheme has two components:
SITARE-Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award Grant(SITARE-GYTI): 15 innovative student projects will receive funding support of up to INR 15 lakhs each. SITARE-GYTI encourages postgraduate and doctoral students to undertake projects with commercial potential leading to the creation of biotech startups. The fund recipients are recognized as BIRAC’s SITARE-GYTI beneficiaries.

Eligibility: Indian Students pursuing Ph.D/Masters* in any discipline# is eligible to apply for this award grant. The student should have a valid ID issued by the Institution/University. A No objection Certificate (NOC), as per the prescribed format needs to be submitted along with the application.

*Exceptions for exceptional talent: Meritorious candidature outside the above eligibility criteria maybe considered for SITARE with the approval of BIRAC’s competent authority.

#SITARE-GYTI award grant proposals can be submitted in any domain including Healthcare, Life sciences, Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Drugs, Vaccines, Drug Formulations and delivery systems, Industrial Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Agriculture, Secondary agriculture, Waste Management, Sanitation, Clean Energy and Artificial Intelligence/IoT with application in any of these areas.

BIRAC encourages interdisciplinary proposals from any stream that can help conversion of innovative ideas into biotech products and technologies in any of the above fields

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

The announcement of SITARE GYTI will be placed in January 2022.

SITARE-Appreciation Grant: Residential workshops called as Biotech Innovation Ignition School (BIIS) for undergraduate students are organized to provide hands-on technical training and mentorship for problem identification in 3-4 weeks duration. Out of 30-40 students per workshop, 10 students are selected and provided grant support of up to INR 1 lakh each to encourage their inquisitiveness and sustained efforts. The recipients are recognized as BIRAC’s SITARE-Appreciation beneficiaries. In a year, 3 such workshops are conducted. Applications for SITARE-GYTI Award Grants and BIIS workshop participation are invited at national level.

Eligibility: Students pursuing Bachelors programme in any discipline, preferably from Tier II/Tier III cities and aspirational districts within India. The student should have a valid ID issued by the Institution/University. A student can avail only one opportunity for BIIS workshop training across all SITARE Partners, except for the SITARE-Appreciation Award Grantees who will be eligible to avail access to subsequent workshops by other Partners on recommendation by SITARE Partner/BIRAC.

The applications for all other engineering/technology disciplines must be submitted at Techpedia.in platform (www.techpedia.in). The last date for submission of entries at Techpedia is November 30, 2020.