📋 Tender Overview
Four national-level Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI) centres and fifteen regional Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facilities (SAIF) centers equipped with major analytical instruments have been established. The four SATHI centers are at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (Delhi), Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (West Bengal), Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (Telangana).
Under SATHI scheme, institutions are selected on cluster mode based on metrics such as academic and research profile, Institute of Eminence status, rank according to National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), quality of research publications, the breadth of Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths (STEM) disciplines, willingness of lead organisation and its co-opted partners (minimum 5 partners) from nearby organizations to collaborate, technical expertise, readiness to form Section-8 company, availability of dedicated space under one roof, the presence of supportive infrastructure, prior experience in managing shared equipment, well-structured plans for skill development and capacity building, and a minimum 25% funding contribution towards DST’s recommended cost slab. Only ongoing support is provided for strengthening research facilities at SAIF centres and no new calls has been announced to establish new SAIF centres.
DST has supported numerous R&D projects under bilateral S&T cooperation with many countries including Australia, Belarus, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Taiwan, UK, USA and African countries. Under multilateral international cooperation DST is involved with The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS), European Union (EU) etc in the area of sustainable energy, water etc. Some of the salient highlights of these collaborations are focused on adoption of clean technologies, water management, real-time water quality monitoring and water treatment technologies etc.
The scheme in building institutional and human capacity, has made significant paces in advancing scientific research, technological innovation, and human capacity building, by strengthening research facilities of various academic institutions and nurtured young talent. During last financial year, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research -Million Minds Augmenting National Aspiration and Knowledge (INSPIRE-MANAK) program empowered young minds by recognizing over 46,000 innovative ideas submitted by them, with a significant female participation. Additionally, through programs like INSPIRE Faculty and INSPIRE-Scholarship for Higher Education (INSPIRE-SHE), DST has supported more than 11500 fellowship to encouraged research excellence on annual basis.
DST provides assistance to the educational institutions to promote innovation in science and technology under National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations (NIDHI). Support is provided for establishment of startup incubation centers in academic institutions across the country. These centers help in augmenting the institutional capacity of the educational institutes for supporting innovation and translation of research to startup. Over the years, DST has established around 180 incubators across the country in various educational and research institutes supporting startups in different technology domains. In order to strengthen Human Capacity in entrepreneurship and innovation, DST provides fellowship to students through NIDHI Entrepreneur in residence program. Over the last 3 years, a total 931 students have been supported through the NIDHI Entrepreneur in residence fellowship. Climate Energy and Sustainable Technology program has supported over 290 projects on water technology and clean energy.
