Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University

Choosing the right route

• Student or faculty-led idea with a prototype need: the Innovation and Incubation Fund, through the Institution's Innovation Council.
• Early-stage founder who wants a structured course: the Atal Incubation Centre's cohort programmes. Aspire is charged; check each intake for terms.
• Startup seeking seed funding: the IPU-IIF route, which takes equity.

How applications work

• Calls are announced as notices on the university website. Check the latest notice before applying, because some cut-off dates have already passed.
• Use the prescribed project proposal form and send it to the Institution's Innovation Council at iic-ggsipu@ipu.ac.in.
• A student applies as principal investigator, so one student must lead the project with a faculty mentor.

How selection works

• Proposals are screened for alignment with the fund's focus areas, novelty, feasibility and social impact.
• Shortlisted teams present to an expert committee and are classified as pre-incubation, incubation or startup proposals.
• Selected teams receive faculty mentoring to develop a full proposal and business plan before final selection.

What reviewers look for

• A project that is outcome-focused and driven by a business plan.
• A clear prototype or product plan that fits the consumables and contingency scope of the grant.
• Intellectual property arising from the work is assigned to the university, so plan for that from the start.

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) is a state university in Dwarka, New Delhi. It runs its startup support through two not-for-profit Section 8 companies set up under its aegis: the IPU Innovation and Incubation Foundation (IPU-IIF) and the Atal Incubation Centre, GGSIPU Foundation Delhi (AIC-GGSIPU). Its Institution's Innovation Council manages the university's Innovation and Incubation Fund.

How the programmes work

The main route for students is the Innovation and Incubation Fund. It supports student-led pre-incubation projects, incubation projects and seed funding for startups created by students. Calls for ideas are issued from time to time, and the university has run rolling calls with a stated cut-off for each evaluation cycle. Shortlisted teams present to a committee, are sorted into pre-incubation, incubation or startup support, and then receive faculty mentoring before a final review.

The Atal Incubation Centre runs cohort programmes for students, young professionals and women founders. Its Aspire programme is a five-week course that takes a business idea forward, and its Spark cohort is for early-stage women entrepreneurs. Both were open in early 2025 and the published application windows have passed.

Who can apply

Students of the University Schools of Studies, its Centres of Excellence and its affiliated colleges can submit a project to the Innovation and Incubation Fund. Each project has a student principal investigator and a faculty mentor. Startup calls issued in 2025 invited students, young professionals and women founders of GGSIPU.

What is available

Funding under the Innovation and Incubation Fund covers consumables, prototype development, testing and participation in innovation events. Capital equipment is not covered. Support runs for up to 18 months and is released in instalments after progress reviews. Seed funding for student startups is given against an equity stake. The university also states that revenue from supported work flows back to the fund.

The IPU-IIF portal describes office space, meeting rooms, prototyping labs, mentoring and business-planning help for startups. The university's AICTE IDEA Lab is a common facility at E-Block for project and prototype work.

Locations

The main campus is at Sector 16 C, Dwarka, New Delhi. The IPU-IIF portal gives a separate office address in East Campus, Surajmal Vihar, which is worth confirming before a visit.

Who runs it

The Institution's Innovation Council (IIC-GGSIPU) coordinates the fund. The IPU-IIF board and the AIC-GGSIPU foundation carry out the incubation work and take equity in the startups they seed.

Scale

The university's own pages do not give a verified count of startups supported. The AIC-GGSIPU homepage and the IPU-IIF portal publish different self-reported figures, and neither states a period, so this page does not repeat them.