GN JERBI Ignition Grant 2026

The Ignition Grant is offered by the Guru Nanak Jhira Entrepreneurship Research Business and Incubation Foundation (GN JERBI Foundation), the NIDHI DST iTBI centre at Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College (GNDEC), Bidar, Karnataka. This is the third call of the programme.

The grant is for aspiring entrepreneurs and innovators who have an innovative idea with the potential to scale and create impact. Selected applicants receive grant support of up to ₹10 lakh to take the idea forward.

The call lists four focus areas: DeepTech/IT, AgriTech, DairyTech and waste management. The foundation also says it encourages all innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs to apply, and that the best ideas with strong scalability and growth potential will be given due consideration, so ideas outside the focus areas are not ruled out.

NIDHI iTBI (inclusive Technology Business Incubator) centres are set up with support from the Department of Science and Technology under its NIDHI programme to back early-stage innovators, especially in smaller towns and institutions. An idea-stage founder in the Bidar region working on a dairy-tech device, a farm-advisory app or a waste-processing solution is the kind of applicant this call is aimed at.

Applications are made through an online Microsoft Form and close on 14 November 2026.