IIPHG Technology Business Incubator

Choosing the right route

• Pre-incubation suits a team that still needs to show a proof of concept.
• Physical or virtual incubation suits a team with a working technology in a public health area on the focus list.
• The accelerator mode is for scale-up work with industry collaboration. Its terms are not published on the pages read.

How applications work

• Applications are made online through the incubator's call for proposal.
• Send questions to the incubation inbox, incubation@iiphg.org.

How selection works

• An internal review comes first, then an external review by two or more reviewers.
• Shortlisted applicants present to a screening committee before a result is declared.

What reviewers look for

• A public health problem with a technology-based answer.
• Entrepreneurial potential, with achievable goals rather than a research project alone.

The Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar (IIPHG) runs a technology business incubator for public health, known as IIPHG-NIDHI-TBI. It is set up with support from the Department of Science & Technology under its NIDHI scheme, and it is based on the IIPHG campus in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

How programmes work

The incubator offers pre-incubation to test a proof of concept, incubation in either a physical or a virtual setting, and an accelerator mode for scale-up support with industry collaboration. Incubatees get mentoring, hand-holding support, help with intellectual property, access to laboratories, networking, and help to approach funding agencies. The incubator's own pages describe its aim as encouraging linkages between doctors, clinicians, scientists, health workers, technologists and entrepreneurs, to build technology-driven enterprises in public health.

Who can apply

The incubator's focus areas are predictive and diagnostic healthcare technologies, medical devices and diagnostics, AI, IT, machine learning and IoT based healthcare solutions, food adulteration and fortification, and water, sanitation and hygiene. Other areas linked to public health are also considered. Ideas need some entrepreneurial potential. Research projects without achievable goals are not considered.

How selection works

Selection runs in two steps. An internal review by the incubator team and senior IIPHG members comes first. An external review by two or more reviewers follows, drawn from domain experts, investors, industry, established entrepreneurs and potential users. The review can be relaxed for serial entrepreneurs, for startups that already have customer validation, for established ventures with revenue, and for startups already backed by angels or venture funds up to a stated limit. Approval depends on a satisfactory review, and the incubator decides admissions at its own discretion.

Facilities

The prototyping lab has FDM and SDA printers, a laser cutter, a vinyl plotter, an electronics lab and a PCB milling machine. Startups also get furnished co-working space, conference and meeting rooms, and a high-speed internet connection. Microbiology and molecular laboratories are available through the parent institute, along with a health technology assessment unit.

Who runs it

The incubator is developed under the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar. The institute describes itself as India's first public health university. The Government of Gujarat and the Public Health Foundation of India signed an MoU in 2007 to establish it, and the institute began operations in July 2008.

Intake status

The incubator's call for proposal page shows an application window in 2020, which has closed. The pages read did not show a current open call. Check the incubator's website or write to the incubation inbox before applying.