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To facilitate start-ups and entrepreneurship ventures, a large Bio-Incubator with 20,000 sq ft area, has been launched in the University of Hyderabad (UoH). The BioNEST (Bio-Incubator Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies) was inaugurated on the occasion of `National Science Day’ by G Padmanabhan, former Director, Indian Institute of Science.
Supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a unit of the Department of Biotechnology, the facility will be part of the University’s School of Life Sciences. Padmanabhan said “I have seen five such facilities in the country, but this BioNEST facility is the best among them”. He said “Incubators are required in all government institutions for start-ups to commence their work. I have gone through 5,000 research proposals and of that 700 are operational in 500 industries. They have developed 100 products, of which 50 have been commercialised.” He called upon women researchers to take up start-ups and work towards entrepreneurship.
E Premkumar Reddy, Director of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, was the guest of honour. Expressing happiness in being associated as a mentor for the facility, Reddy gave an overview of bio-incubator facilities in the US. The Vice-Chancellor, Appa Rao Podile said, “The selection procedure will be stringent for the incubatees and we are confident that we will have good start-ups at our facility”.
P Reddanna, who is the Principal Investigator for BioNEST said, “The facility can accommodate 30 start-ups and provide 16 benches for research.” More than 350 PhD scholars and faculty at the School of Life Sciences can help in collaborations and consulting for the start-ups, he added.
The University made its entry into entrepreneurship through the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) funded through the Department of Science and Technology, Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurship Program (TIDE) funded through the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. The BioNEST will incubate start-ups and entrepreneurs in the life sciences, biotechnology, healthcare and allied areas of research.
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