face to face
researchers to get the funding support. Also, we might
consider a program on agri-electronics which is very
interesting. It will help in precision farming given the fact
that government interest is majorly on agriculture. It will
also help us to connect the soil health card scheme that the
Prime Minister’s pet project. We are looking at developing
diagnostic systems for the soil health. At the moment we are
in talks with DIETY but in the longer run for the large scale
demonstration projects, we might speak to the agriculture
ministry as well.
There have been many announcements on the
international partnerships at the BIRAC Foundation
Day. Can you please tell us about their importance?
Australia has got great strengths in horticulture research.
Therefore, BIRAC has tied up with Hort Innovation,
Australia in which we have found the perfect ally to conduct
cutting-edge research in the area of horticulture. This
strategic partnership of close to 6 million AUD will
undoubtedly promote the development of cost effective
practices for crop harvesting.
Partnership with the Nesta from United Kingdom is one of
the biggest. Launched in November 2014, the Longitude
Prize is a five-year challenge with a 10 million pounds prize
fund. It aims to conserve antibiotics for future generations,
revolutionizing global healthcare. We have together
launched the Longitude Prize Discovery Awards. These are
small seed grants to help individuals or teams to further
develop their ideas to win the prize.
DBT has been having one of the long standing partnerships
with the Tekes, Finland. Tekes has been very strong on
academia-industry partnerships. Through this collaboration,
we want to give our entrepreneurs an access to their market.
Network sharing platform will add value.
What is the status of the university cluster programme
that was launched few years back?
The selected grantees are doing their research. I think it will
take us a while to let you know whether the research has
moved toward the outcome. If that is really translated into
the entrepreneurship, the next step will be decided later. We
are waiting for another year or so to pick up. If it picks up
well, we can go ahead or else it will be learning experience to
do something different. Like in case of incubators, we learnt
what the gaps, strengths or challenges. We will arrive at the
assessment shortly.
What are the criteria for the workshops being
undertaken by the BIRAC at various levels?
The workshops we two are of two sets: One covers the
regulatory aspects of biopharma, medical technology and
other verticals. It doesn’t talk about the issues or hurdles but
the regulatory need. If you have to generate data that is
compliant to regulatory needs, we give the understanding
about the procedure. The other kinds of workshops we do are
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BioVoiceNews | June 2016
“
The current success ratio
is merely 15-17%. But that
doesn’t mean that the rest 83 to
85% of ideas are to be junked.
We have limited funds in our kitty
and thus we have to take only
the best. But we do advise them
to come back.
hands on experience on technologies. These are need based
and after we receive the feedback from the industry. For
example, if they seek understanding on industrial
processing, recombinant proteins, and certain cell line
cultures etc., we then talk to academic institutes and
facilitate that. We are in talks with many organizations to
explore the chances of starting a teaching programme for
technicians for operating various machines. Possibly this
year we might do a workshop on this. It is about skilling and
making people aware about new cutting edge technologies.
Is BIRAC doing something for women entrepreneurs?
We have a whole biotech park for women in Chennai. Totally
for women, there are already plenty of them in the park. It
has been supported by the incubation park there along with
M S Swaminathan Foundation. While it was originally
supported by DBT as Business Park, now we have supported
it as the women entrepreneur incubator. It will have all the
components of a regular incubation space.
How do you look at the challenges faced by the
entrepreneurs? Do the challenges at BIRAC look
similar?
The sustainability of their ideas is a major one and if we can
help them to choose their idea and take it forward, Second
challenge is the access to funding. While we are making all
our efforts, government can go only this far. We are using
various funding mechanisms. Some of them face the issues
from current regulatory system that takes their product
gestation period beyond their expectations. That makes their
product expensive and thus is not so good. Access to the
market is also a big challenge. We need to help them
understand where the market is and how do they approach
it. We are taking steps towards that.
As far as BIRAC is concerned, there are huge challenges
before it. BIRAC again is itself a startup and sustainability is
even an issue for it. It has to make sure that that it doesn’t
get complacent with its processes. There are key factors that
contribute to BIRAC’s success and we have to ensure it
continues its emphasis on them. It has to stay in its dynamic
mode and sync with demands of ecosystem. We will have to
keep changing and that is a challenge.