NIDHI PRAYAS

The centre is one of the Department of Science & Technology's PRAYAS centres, which means it runs this prototype grant locally. The last deadline shown on its page was 20 August 2025, and the department's PRAYAS portal currently shows the centre's call as closed, so this is one to watch for the next round.

What you get

• A prototype grant, with the amount set by the centre's monitoring committee
• Access to the Design & Innovation Lab and the fab lab, plus space at the centre
• Facilities of the host institute, mentoring, business facilitation and infrastructure support

Who can apply

• Young innovators and startups building a physical product
• Priority fields are manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, clean tech, energy, water and internet-of-things devices; other fields may be considered on merit
• Pure software, ecommerce, service and app-only projects are not supported. Software counts only as part of a hardware build
• A product already past prototype stage does not qualify
• Selected applicants must pre-incubate or incubate with the centre
• You can take this grant only once, and not for the same idea as a NIDHI Entrepreneur-in-Residence grant

How selection works: the centre's own PRAYAS monitoring committee selects the innovators and sets each grant.

How to apply: through the centre's application portal when a call is open. Projects run for twelve months, with one six-month extension possible.