RISE Foundation IISER

Start with the right route

• Founder with a science or technology venture: use the Incubation Application option on RISE's contact form.
• Student at IISER Kolkata or a nearby institute: ask about pre-incubation mentoring, which can include placement experience in a RISE startup.
• Looking for investors, partners or mentors: the same form has separate options for investment, partnership and mentorship.

How applications work

RISE publishes no application form, policy document or intake window for incubation. The route in is the contact form, and the Get Started button on its pages leads there. Choose Incubation Application so the enquiry reaches the right person, and write to info@risefoundationiiser.co.in if the form does not work for you.

Before you apply

• Ask about terms. RISE does not state whether incubation carries a fee or equity. Get this in writing before you commit.
• Ask what you will use. Check that the labs you need, such as cell culture, plant tissue culture, chemical or fabrication work, are available to your team.
• Check the location. The centre is at Mohanpur in Nadia district, about a campus visit away from Kolkata city, and incubation is on site.

What to put in your enquiry

RISE has not published selection criteria, so the points below are suggestions, not its checklist.

• What the science or technology is and what stage it has reached.
• Which facilities or instruments you need.
• Whether you are a student, a researcher or a founder with a company.

RISE Foundation IISER, short for the Research Innovation and Scientific Entrepreneurship Foundation IISER, is a technology business incubator on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata. It is a Section 8 non-profit company, supported by the Department of Science and Technology's NIDHI-TBI scheme and by IISER Kolkata. The centre is at Mohanpur in Nadia district, West Bengal, not in Kolkata city.

RISE works with science and technology founders. Its site lists biotech, advanced materials, diagnostics, clean energy, AI for science, quantum sensing, agri-biotech and photonics as its areas. The older version of its site said it invites proposals from across eastern and north-eastern India.

How incubation works

RISE describes its incubation as a systematic process for evaluating, improving and perfecting an idea, from inception through the alpha and beta stages. Incubated teams get mentoring, space to work, and access to the facilities on campus.

The site lists support under these headings: incubation support, infrastructure, analytical support, prototyping, legal and compliance, networking events, investor liaison and market penetration. Each has its own page on the site.

RISE does not publish a fee, an equity term, an intake calendar or a selection checklist for incubation. If you need to know any of these, ask RISE before you apply.

Students get a separate route. RISE offers pre-incubation mentoring to IISER Kolkata students and students from the region. They can also gain placement experience inside RISE startups, which can count toward a BS/MS final-year project.

Who can apply

The incubation page is aimed at science and technology founders and early-stage science-led ventures. The contact form has an Incubation Application option that is not limited to campus members, so outside founders can use it. RISE does not state a formal eligibility rule, so treat fit as something to confirm with the team.

Facilities

RISE lists these facilities on its site:

• a fabrication lab with a clean room
• a microbial culture facility
• an animal cell culture facility
• a chemical technology facility
• a plant tissue culture facility
• a dark room for optics and photonics work
• an IT space and library

For working space, incubated teams get dedicated desks and cabin space, with flexible access as the team grows. There are meeting rooms and boardrooms, a conferencing setup, internet and IT infrastructure, power backup and on-campus security. RISE describes the lab and workspace area as about 20,000 square feet. That figure is RISE's own.

Scale

RISE's home page reports 35+ incubating startups, 50+ startups evaluated and 17+ collaborating organisations. These are RISE's own figures and are not independently checked.

The startups it names as built at RISE include Sattvika Agri-Lab, Nutriciana, Mousumi Biotech, Synbiogenesis, CanFinis Therapeutics, SciAMO Research and Instruments, Cowbit Bioinspired Innovation, ChemActiva Innovations and BInfoSol. Its startups page groups them into agriculture, biotech and biomedical, engineering, and sustainability and chemical sciences.

Who runs it

RISE is an independent company, not a government body. Its own recruitment notice says it is a self-financed centre and that its posts are not government appointments. DST's NIDHI-TBI scheme and IISER Kolkata funded the build-out of its facilities. Its About page lists a board and team by name, without a role against each person.

Events and other programmes

RISE runs short hands-on workshops from time to time. Recent ones covered scientific entrepreneurship with 3D printing, and quality control chemistry for students and industry professionals. These are one-off trainings with their own registration, not startup support. Its events page also lists a national entrepreneur-in-residence programme run by MeitY Startup Hub, which is applied for on the MeitY Startup Hub portal and not through RISE.

Locations and contact

RISE Foundation IISER, IISER Kolkata Campus, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal 741246. Its registered office on an older notice gives the postcode as 741252. The contact page lists info@risefoundationiiser.co.in. The contact form also has options for partnership, investment, mentorship, careers and general enquiries.