Savli Technology and Business Incubator (STBI)

Work out which route fits

STBI runs several separate schemes rather than one common application, so start by matching your stage to the right one:

• Just have an idea, need to validate it: apply to Idea Doodle Lab with a one-page summary and your CV.
• Have an idea and need to build a first physical prototype: apply to NIDHI-PRAYAS when it is open, and plan to use STBI's fabrication lab.
• Already a registered startup with a validated USP, need bridge capital: apply to the NIDHI Seed Support Programme when the window is open.
• Working on a biotech or biomedical product and already an STBI incubatee, or willing to become one: look at the BIRAC SEED Fund.
• Want hands-on exposure before committing to any of the above: apply to the Shadow Internship Programme.
• A student, researcher or local innovator with a problem-solving idea: watch for the HackTheHurdle hackathon.

How applications work

• Idea Doodle Lab, IP Clinic and Funding Clinic applications go by email with a short written submission, not a portal.
• NIDHI-PRAYAS, the NIDHI Seed Support Programme, HackTheHurdle, the AtmaNirbhar Gujarat Fellowship and the Shadow Internship Programme each publish their own last date to apply and their own online form — check the current deadline on STBI's site before you start, since these are calendar-based, not rolling.
• Read the detailed guidelines document linked on a scheme's own page before applying; several schemes ask for specific templates (founders' details, a comparative landscape, revenue projections, a milestone timeline) that must be filled and uploaded exactly where the form asks.

What selection looks for

• For NIDHI-PRAYAS, screening weighs the idea and innovation itself, potential for commercialisation and venture creation, and the team's capability and commitment; screening typically takes six to eight weeks from the closing date, and only shortlisted applicants are contacted for a final presentation.
• For the NIDHI Seed Support Programme, STBI looks for a startup with a clear, customer-validated unique selling point rather than just an idea, and majority Indian ownership.
• For the BIRAC SEED Fund, alignment with STBI's biotech/biomed focus, a product (not just a service) offering, and readiness to validate or scale an innovation all matter, and the startup must be prepared to become an STBI incubatee.

Before you apply

• Have your one-page idea summary and CV ready for Idea Doodle Lab, or your shareholding, comparative-landscape and revenue-projection templates ready for the Seed Support Programme — incomplete uploads are a common reason applications stall.
• Reach out to the scheme's own contact (each has a separate coordinator and email) if anything in the guidelines is unclear, rather than STBI's general inbox.

Savli Technology and Business Incubator (STBI) is a technology business incubator run by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat (DST-GoG). It sits inside the GIDC industrial estate at Savli, Manjusar, on the outskirts of Vadodara, and works mainly with biotechnology, life-sciences and hardware startups that need lab or prototyping infrastructure rather than just desk space.

How programmes work

STBI does not run one flagship cohort. Instead it operates a set of parallel schemes, each with its own application route and, in several cases, its own funding partner. The BIRAC SEED Fund gives capital assistance to startups working on biotech and biomedical products, with equity typically set from an independent valuation once a startup becomes an STBI incubatee. NIDHI-PRAYAS is a proof-of-concept grant for individual innovators aged 18 and over, or early founders, who still need to turn an idea into a working physical prototype; selected applicants use STBI's own fabrication lab, branded internally as the PRAYAS Shala. The NIDHI Seed Support Programme is aimed at registered Indian startups with a validated USP that need bridge capital between promoter money and outside investment, and asks for founders' shareholding details, a comparative landscape, revenue projections and a milestone timeline as part of the application. Idea Doodle Lab is STBI's own pre-incubation track: a 120-day programme, extendable to 180 days, for people with an idea that is not yet market-ready, giving them nominal-charge access to shared lab and office space, the Common Instrumentation Facility and STBI's mentor network, with a route into full incubation if the idea firms up into a credible project. HackTheHurdle is a statewide hackathon run with GInTech Hub (the Gujarat Innovation & Technopreneurship Hub) that funnels into Regional Innovation Cells STBI is building across the state; selected teams get a free incubation period and milestone-linked grant support toward prototyping. The AtmaNirbhar Gujarat Fellowship is aimed at graduates, postgraduates and working professionals who want to build a product, process or technology instead of taking a job. The Shadow Internship Programme is different in kind: an unpaid, non-funding track that lets aspiring founders and researchers shadow STBI's incubation team and its incubated startups to learn how the ecosystem actually runs.

STBI also hosts an IP Clinic and a Funding Clinic. The IP Clinic connects founders to techno-legal experts and IP attorneys for patent drafting and filing strategy, licensing and commercialisation routes, and prior-art or freedom-to-operate research. The Funding Clinic works through the mechanics of raising money — bootstrapping, crowdfunding, angel and venture capital, bank loans, NBFC financing, contest winnings and government startup-capital schemes — and connects founders to investors and mentors through STBI's network.

Who can apply

Most of STBI's schemes are open to individual innovators or early-stage startups working on technology or science-based ideas, with a historical lean toward biotechnology and life sciences; NIDHI-PRAYAS widens this to manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, clean-tech, energy, water and IoT. Startup-facing schemes generally require Indian registration and majority Indian ownership, and several require the applicant to formally become an STBI incubatee once selected. A separate scheme, the E-CBC network, is not for startups at all — it recruits faculty members and academic institutions across Gujarat to build entrepreneurship-capacity cells on their own campuses, run jointly with the Gujarat State Biotechnology Mission (GSBTM).

Facilities

STBI's building has plug-and-play modular and shared laboratories, dedicated and shared office space, a Common Instrumentation Facility, a Pilot Scale-Up Plant Facility and a Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory. It also runs a fabrication lab equipped with 3D printers (SLA and FDM), a 3D scanner, laser cutting and engraving, PCB milling and drilling, and basic electronics and mechanical workshop tools, plus a design studio, clean rooms and cell culture rooms.

Who runs it

STBI's Director is Dr. Anand Bhadalkar, and its Chief Technology Officer is Dr. Atish A. Ray. As a DST-GoG unit, its team operates on gujarat.gov.in mailboxes and its site is hosted on a government subdomain. It is also a BIRAC-supported bio-incubator, a DST-NIDHI TBI, and holds DPIIT recognition under Startup India. STBI is based at the EPIP/CFC Building, GIDC – Savli, Manjusar, Vadodara, and does not publish a second physical location, though its planned Regional Innovation Cells are meant to extend its reach to other parts of Gujarat through partner institutions rather than STBI's own branches.