The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a not-for-profit undertaking under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), has announced a string of partnerships with domestic and international organisations to support, fund and scale up technologies with focus on health and agriculture.

The partners include the UK’s Nesta, Finnish Tekes, Horticulture Innovation Australia and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). The partnerships were announced on the occasion of BIRAC’s fourth Foundation Day celebrations here on Sunday.

With Nesta, BIRAC will collaborate to create an India-focused seed fund to incentivise innovators to help solve the problem of global antibiotic resistance.

Tekes, the Finnish funding agency, will help improve competitiveness of Indian and Finnish industries by collaborating in the knowledge innovation chain, a BIRAC release said.

Horticulture Innovation Australia will be part of a joint funding programme to support innovative technologies for sustainable horticulture at a global level, while TISS will mentor BIRAC’s social innovators.

“Research and innovation are crucial drivers of change. Through the partnerships, we aim to facilitate the development of innovative, high quality affordable products that can transform our lives for the better.” said K VijayRaghavan, Secretary, DBT, and Chairman, BIRAC.