Contest to identify and nurture bio-entrepreneurs coming to a close

The countdown for the grand finale of the National Bio Entrepreneurship Competition (NBEC) 2019 began today with the launch of a two-day boot camp for the finalists. The contest is organised by BIRAC Regional Entrepreneurship Centre, which is a joint initiative of Department of Biotechnology’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and Bengaluru-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP).

This is the third edition of the contest, which is designed to attract, identify, and nurture bio-entrepreneurs across India with path breaking business ideas for societal impact. The business ideas can be from any domain of Life Sciences from healthcare and agri-biotech to animal health and industrial biotech. They can be original or demonstrate a significant improvement over currently available solutions.

Over the past two years, the contest has established itself as a flagship platform in India. It received more than 3500 registrations from across 32 states and union territories and provided over Rs 3 crore in cash prizes and investment opportunities.

The contest, which was open to students, individuals, innovators, aspiring entrepreneurs, start-ups, and biotech companies, consisted of three rounds spread over four months, starting from August 1. In the first round, applications were invited followed by online reviews. In the second round, the selected applicants made business pitches about their ideas to juries made of domain experts from the academia, industry, investment sector and other ecosystem stakeholder organisations. The second round was conducted on regional basis in five cities across the country.

In the third round, which began today, the finalists will go through a boot camp and mentoring over two days followed by business pitch to the grand jury. The boot camp is a residential workshop that will train the participants to formulate, develop, and commercialize their business ideas. At the end of the workshop, on the next day the participants will make a business plan presentation to the grand jury.

(India Science Wire)

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