Savitribai Phule Pune University

Work out which route fits

Scitech Park runs several separate schemes rather than one intake, so start by matching your stage to the right one:

• Have a working prototype and want to register a company here? Growth Lab's resident incubation is the route in.
• Still at the idea stage and want pre-incubation support? Look for the next open NIDHI-PRAYAS round.
• Want an entrepreneur-in-residence route? Check whether a NIDHI-EIR round is open.
• Already incubated here and looking for seed support? NIDHI-SSP, run with the Technology Development Board, is for resident startups.
• Working on climate tech or want the current accelerator? Scitech Stepup ManXL is the live NIDHI Accelerator track; Scitech Climate Runway has already closed.

How applications work

• Growth Lab: submit an executive summary of your business plan for review by the expert committee. If it clears that stage, you present to the committee for technical and financial due diligence, then submit a detailed business plan before signing a formal incubation agreement.
• NIDHI-PRAYAS, NIDHI-EIR and NIDHI-SSP: each runs in dated rounds rather than being open year-round. When a call is closed, Scitech Park asks applicants not to call and says updates go out by email — so watch its site or mailing list rather than expecting a rolling form.
• General queries can go to stp@scitechpark.org.in or the office number on its contact page.

What the selection process looks at

For Growth Lab, the expert committee judges applications on the merit of the business proposal, its financial viability, whether the founder has relevant prior experience, the growth potential of the business, how unique the technology or product is, the founder's market knowledge, and the strength of the management team. Priority goes to technologies developed indigenously within Indian universities, research labs or industry, and to businesses with a clear social impact.

Before you apply

• Have your company in the process of registration under the Indian Companies Act — Growth Lab looks for applicants at that stage, not pre-registration ideas.
• Bring a business plan you can defend to a technical and financial due-diligence panel, not just a pitch deck.
• If you are already incubated elsewhere and want to expand into Pune or Maharashtra, ask about co-incubation rather than applying as a fresh startup.

Science and Technology Park, Pune — known as Scitech Park or STEP-Pune — is a not-for-profit Trust and Society set up in 1986 by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. It sits on the Savitribai Phule Pune University campus in Ganeshkhind, Pune, and was one of the first Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks (STEPs) set up in India.

What they support

Scitech Park backs technology-based startups across IT/ITES, clean technology, renewable energy, education, health and hygiene, environment and waste management, agriculture and food technology, pharma, biotechnology, electronics and telecommunication, cyber security, and socially oriented ventures. Its incubation programme, Growth Lab, takes companies that are in the process of registering under the Indian Companies Act and have a sound, technology-driven business plan; it gives priority to technologies developed within Indian universities, research labs or industry, and to products with social impact. Startups already incubated elsewhere in India or abroad can also apply for co-incubation if they want to expand into Pune or Maharashtra.

Programmes

Growth Lab is Scitech Park's resident technology business incubator, first set up at Bhosari in 2006-07. A company is admitted after submitting an executive summary of its business plan for expert-committee review, presenting to the committee for technical and financial due diligence, and then submitting a detailed business plan; selection ends with a formal agreement and an incubator registration certificate. Companies can stay in the programme for up to three years, extendable case by case, and are expected to become cash-positive and graduate within that window.

Alongside Growth Lab, Scitech Park runs the DST NIDHI (National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations) family of schemes. It is recognised as a NIDHI-PRAYAS pre-incubation centre, supporting ten innovative ideas a year for five years, taking them from idea to prototype; its most recent PRAYAS call (Year 5, Round 4) was closed at the time of research. It also runs NIDHI-EIR, an entrepreneur-in-residence scheme that has run at least four grantee rounds, and NIDHI-SSP, a Seed Support System for startups already inside its incubators, run together with the Technology Development Board. NIDHI-SSP has supported startups working in cyber security, electronics, environment and climate, healthcare, construction, retrofit electric vehicles, medical devices, waste-to-wealth and manufacturing, with the most recent batch dated to the 2025-26 financial year, so the scheme is still active.

Under a NIDHI Accelerator umbrella, Scitech Park ran Scitech Climate Runway, a climate-tech cohort marked complete on its site, and currently runs Scitech Stepup ManXL, which its site marks as ongoing. Scitech Park is also listed as an implementing incubator for the central government's Startup India Seed Fund Scheme, though its own page on the scheme carried no further detail at the time of research.

Facilities and support

Growth Lab's co-working incubation space gives resident startups an individual workstation with power backup and internet, biometric building access, shared conference and discussion rooms, and an in-house library. Startups get a single window for legal documentation, help incorporating the entity, and IPR protection support during formation; once inside, they get mentoring, networking introductions, business planning help and access to funding opportunities, followed by marketing planning, product testing and certification support, business valuation help, and human capital management as they scale. Growth Lab's Board of Mentors draws on industry, academia, R&D, angel investors, venture capital and serial entrepreneurs, backed by a panel of chartered accountants, lawyers and consultants. Resident companies also get introductions to DST and TDB seed support and to angel, venture capital and private equity investors, plus a service-tax exemption on turnover up to a stated threshold.

Beyond Growth Lab, Scitech Park operates four Centre for Invention, Innovation and Incubation (CIII) locations, at Karvenagar and Hadapsar in Pune, in Satara, and in Kharghar.

Track record

Scitech Park's own pages give different totals for how many startups it has incubated overall — 122 on its About page, 125 on its Business Incubation page and 176 on its homepage — so no single all-time figure can be stated with confidence. What is consistent is that incubatees have come from 14 different technology domains, and that Growth Lab began with four startups in 2006-07 and has grown from there. Its NIDHI-SSP seed-support list names startups it has backed as recently as the 2025-26 financial year. Scitech Park has also been recognised with an AABI incubator award, a DST felicitation, a national e-governance award, and empanelment as a training partner for skill development of persons with disabilities. Separately from its incubation work, Scitech Park runs a geoinformatics and e-governance consultancy practice, including mapping work for city gas distribution companies and municipal bodies, and a corporate-social-responsibility programme in rural Maharashtra — a second line of activity distinct from startup incubation.

Who runs it

Scitech Park's Director General and CEO is Dr. Rajendra Jagdale, credited on its site with an AABI Honour, a DST felicitation, and other individual awards for his work in incubation and entrepreneurship.

How to apply

There is no single, always-open application form covering every scheme. Growth Lab's resident incubation track is entered through the business-plan submission and expert-committee review described above. The NIDHI-PRAYAS, NIDHI-EIR and NIDHI-SSP schemes each open in dated rounds and are announced and closed on their own pages, with updates on new calls sent by email once a round opens.