IIEC, IIT Gandhinagar

Which route fits you

If you have an idea you want to turn into a working prototype and you are not yet a funded company, NIDHI PRAYAS is the route. It runs in rounds, so check the PRAYAS page for an open call rather than assuming applications are always taken.

If you already have a proof of concept or a business and want space, mentoring and introductions, go through IIEC's general incubation route instead. The four stages it describes, from ideation through pre-incubation and incubation to acceleration, all share one entry process.

If you are a student graduating in 2026 or a pre-seed team that has not raised outside money, Boeing BUILD is a separate national programme IIEC takes part in as a partner incubator. Apply to it through Boeing's own call, not through IIEC.

How applications work

For the general incubation route, the first step is a pre-application questionnaire in IIEC's own format. It is not downloadable from the site, so write to iiec@iitgn.ac.in and ask for it. Once IIEC has reviewed it against the criteria for each programme, you may be invited to a first meeting, and after that you are referred to whichever programme suits your stage.

For NIDHI PRAYAS, applications go through an online form linked from the PRAYAS page while a round is open. Have your eligibility evidence ready before you start: date of incorporation and shareholding if you are a startup, and a no-objection letter from your employer or institution if you are employed or studying somewhere else.

What reviewers look for

NIDHI PRAYAS is explicit about what it will and will not fund. It wants a well-defined problem with a considered technical solution, an idea novel enough to create intellectual property, and a project that can be finished in eighteen months. It says technology ideas that can result in a viable startup are preferred. It will not fund pure software, e-commerce, service or app-based ideas, work beyond prototype stage, fundamental research, or student coursework. Priority areas are advanced and smart manufacturing, the Internet of Things, robotics, mobility, health-tech, agri-tech, clean-tech, energy, water and sustainability.

Ownership matters as much as the idea. IIEC will not support an applicant who does not own the project know-how, and the intellectual property generated has to vest with the innovator, the team or the startup. If you are in a team, agree in advance who the lead innovator is, because that is who applies and who receives the funds.

You can only take PRAYAS support from one PRAYAS centre, and you cannot hold PRAYAS and NIDHI EIR support at the same time.

Before you write

IIEC is a hardware and deep-tech incubator first. The programmes it runs, the labs it lists and the projects it has backed are overwhelmingly physical products, so lead with what you are building, what it does and what still has to be proven. Say plainly why the work needs a prototyping lab and campus lab access, and what you will have at the end of eighteen months that you do not have now.

The IIT Gandhinagar Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, usually written as IIEC, is the technology business incubator on the IIT Gandhinagar campus. It is a Section 8 company promoted by IIT Gandhinagar, set up as the institute's service arm for incubation, intellectual property management and commercialisation. Its stated mission is to foster techno-entrepreneurship through innovative and creative thinking using an interdisciplinary approach.

IIEC sits at Palaj, on the bank of the Sabarmati in Gandhinagar, about a thirty-minute drive from Ahmedabad airport. The centre has been running incubation activity since 2012, the year of the institute's first graduating batch.

Who can apply

You do not have to be from IIT Gandhinagar. IIEC says it currently incubates companies started by its own alumni and is open to incubating companies from outside the institute. Its own invitation to founders is blunt: if you think you have a technology that can make a viable business, walk in.

Its open grant call, NIDHI PRAYAS, is wider still. Any Indian citizen aged eighteen or over can apply, as an individual innovator, as a team of innovators, as a startup, or as someone employed at or studying in another R&D organisation or academic institution. Employed innovators and students need a no-objection letter from their organisation that lets them apply, gives them time to work on the project, and confirms the intellectual property will vest with them. Startups must be within seven years of incorporation, must be majority-owned by Indian founders, and must be under a stated ceiling on turnover and funding received. Anyone already supported once under NIDHI PRAYAS, or being supported under NIDHI EIR at the same time, is out.

The work itself has to fit too. NIDHI PRAYAS is for turning an idea into a physical prototype, and IIEC excludes pure software development, e-commerce, service and app-based ideas, work already past the prototype stage, and fundamental research or student coursework.

How programmes work

IIEC describes four stages of support rather than a single fixed cohort. The first is for a would-be entrepreneur with no settled idea, domain or career direction. The second is pre-incubation, from validating an idea to reaching a proof of concept. The third is incubation, from proof of concept to a business. The fourth is acceleration for scaling a business that has already been proven.

Entry to all four runs through the same door. You send IIEC a pre-application questionnaire in the format it specifies. If it clears the eligibility criteria for one of the programmes, you may be invited to a first meeting with the centre, and after that preliminary assessment you are pointed at whichever programme fits. The questionnaire is not published on the site, so the practical first step is to write to the centre's enquiries inbox at iiec@iitgn.ac.in and ask for it. Stated working hours are 10am to 5pm.

Alongside that, IIEC runs NIDHI PRAYAS, the Department of Science and Technology's prototyping grant, as a PRAYAS centre. It is open in rounds rather than continuously, and the last published round closed in August 2025. Grantees get a prototyping grant, mentorship in design, development, technology and business, help protecting intellectual property, access to the tinkering lab, the IITGN library and the institute's labs, co-working space, design support, campus accommodation, and help with commercialisation. Projects have to be doable inside eighteen months.

IIEC is also one of seven incubators partnering Boeing on Boeing BUILD, a national programme for students graduating in 2026 and for pre-seed startups that have not raised outside money. Boeing runs it; IIEC hosts the 2026 microsite and takes part as a partner incubator alongside SINE at IIT Bombay, FITT at IIT Delhi, the IIT Madras Incubation Cell, FSID at IISc Bengaluru, T-Hub in Hyderabad and KIIT TBI in Bhubaneswar.

Facilities

The incubation space offers co-working and individual offices with furniture, storage, air-conditioning and wired and wireless internet, plus meeting and discussion rooms and printing, photocopying and scanning. Incubation facilities include wet and dry labs and rapid prototyping infrastructure for hardware and software, a tinkering lab, and access to IIT Gandhinagar's own labs and library. There is a cafeteria on campus, and hostel accommodation for founders and interns subject to availability.

On the services side IIEC offers IPR consultancy, secretarial assistance, finance and accounting, non-monetary help with incorporating a company, business management advice, introductions to chartered accountants, company secretaries, HR, patent attorneys and lawyers, and networking with professional bodies, venture capital firms, investors and other funding agencies.

Who runs it

Day-to-day the centre is run by a small team: Nirmal Jha as Advisor for industry partnerships, Anand Pandey as Deputy Manager for commercialisation, and K. Naga Mouli as Compliance Manager and Executive Officer, who has looked after incubation activity since it began in 2012. A statutory board of five drawn from IIT Gandhinagar sits above them, with a fourteen-person advisory council and a pool of twelve named mentors.

Where it is

IIEC's office is at 3/324, IIT Gandhinagar, Palaj, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. General enquiries and PRAYAS questions both go to iiec@iitgn.ac.in. IIEC does not publish a careers page, and the events section of its site has not been updated since 2018.