The Foundation of MSME Clusters, a New Delhi - based NGO specializing in cluster development which is implementing the Promoting Innovative Clusters (PICs) for life sciences industry with support of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), is creating mentors' groups in various pharma hubs in Gujarat to identify and support potential innovators showing them the roadmap for success.
The foundation, which has been working actively for the past three years to develop an ecosystem that promotes the life sciences, largely the pharmaceuticals, medical devices and ISM clusters along with strengthening the existing stakeholders in the cluster, is creating mentors' groups in five regions--- Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Baroda, Vapi and Ankaleswar by including experts in various life science segments, for the purpose. The group for Ahmedabad has already came into existence, according to sources from the foundation.
A mentors' group will identify the potential innovators and start up firms to take their discovery further to commercialisation by giving suggestions including technical expertise and linkages. The foundation is also planning to create a website for the mentors' group to facilitate on-line connectivity to the innovators with the experts.
Further, the foundation is also creating a list of start up life science firms in the state and a list of students in related segments passing out from colleges in the state to maintain a database of innovation projects in Gujarat. This year, the foundation is targeting to identify almost 30 to 40 innovators in the life science sector to provide required support for their growth.
The project is expected to support SMEs in linking to stakeholders within and outside the cluster to promote innovation culture amongst them. Support for a few innovative proposals for SMEs in the cluster and the start-ups with an objective to understand the challenges that SME firms or start-ups come across while working on potentially new areas, according to Dr Kamal Sarkar, project director, Foundation of MSME Clusters, Gujarat.
For instance, the foundation has extended partial financial support of around Rs 8 lakh to a start-up company Axio Biosolutions for development of its product Axio-Clot, a biomaterial medical device for advance wound care. The project has been linked to Techno Entrepreneur Promoting Programme (TePP) of DST and the company has recently received funding from the Gujarat Venture Funds Ltd.
The cluster project, mooted by the DST and implemented in two pharma hubs – Ahmedabad in Gujarat and Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh – is aimed at helping the SMEs in accessing early capital and start up, since there are limited schemes from government agencies or venture funds to meet this requirement, considering the risks involved.
The foundation is also planning to create innovative clubs, on the lines of the other students clubs in pharmacy colleges in Gujarat to boost innovation activities right from the academic level, said K M Balajee, project coordinator, Foundation of MSME Clusters. The idea is to form clubs in colleges and to conduct inter-college competitions on innovation to develop and promote new ideas and projects in the life sciences sector.
Another area where the PIC project would focus is in the medical devices segment for development of skilled manpower for the growing industry. The foundation will create eight groups with representation from students, technical experts, faculties from institutes and experts from the industry to develop effective prototypes in the segment.
“Medical devices are one of the important sectors in life sciences that holds potential in coming days more so when the infrastructure is being established in Gujarat for the same. However there is a gap between the demand of existing firms (industry) in terms of trained HR and their availability through existing institutions,” says the foundation sources.
Report on ‘Recommendations for NIPERs Medical Devices in India’ has highlighted need for skilled HR as one of the important areas that needs timely intervention for development of this sector. “This calls for a training and exposure of the industry to faculty and students. A program shall be designed to conduct various training programs for both the sources of HR that would equip them as per the demands of the industry,” they added.
The scope of action includes learning and collecting feedback from stakeholders followed by implementation of activities that promote the system and undertaking initiatives in cross-cutting areas to develop an ecosystem that is conducive for promoting innovation, through awareness workshops and seminars in the area of intellectual property rights, mentoring and writing project proposals.
Further, the Xavier College, Ahmedabad was given support to apply for the “MSME scheme for Technology Business Incubation Centre” scheme. This was an initiative to develop an ecosystem that supports start-ups. The college has got selected for implementing the TBI scheme of ministry of MSME. Under the scheme ,college can support 10 start-ups up to Rs 8 to 10 lakh for working on some innovative ideas to promote innovation and entrepreneurship amongst the start -ups.
The foundation has also arrived at a list of possible areas where it could work to promote innovation. A list of possible 10 to 11 areas was prepared on which the initiatives were planned to be undertaken during next two and a half years of the project, through extensive discussions with major stakeholders. Some areas like regulations and pharmaceutical funds which externally affect the ecosystem and cannot be undertaken at a larger level at this stage have not been pursued. Rest of the areas suggested are being pursued through different initiatives.
The areas include creating and enabling conditions for promotion of start-ups, creating an innovation management tool-kit where the experience from these initiatives and the expertise of institutes like EDI shall be utilized to promote entrepreneurship and innovation management amongst the start-ups and existing SMEs, strengthening IPR system by spreading specific information SMEs, promoting interaction with innovation system abroad and linking the innovators and SMEs to support funds with various government schemes that would provide the financial assistance for their initiatives.
Contracts were issued by the foundation to Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) Biotech resource centre and GITCO for conducting an awareness programme and a training programme on IPR issues for SMEs in pharmaceutical sector and to Department of Chemistry, Saurashtra university (Rajkot) for setting up facility for ‘Preservation of Molecular Diversity’.
Another project to inculcate the culture of innovation and change the mindset of SMEs in collaboration with PERD centre at Ahmedabad to develop sustained drug release technologies (sustained released drugs and formulations) and transfer them to SMEs for manufacturing is also being planned.
Moreover in order to identify and transfer commercially viable technologies to the SMEs, a contract has been issued to Skyquest Technology Consulting Pvt. Ltd to conduct a technology scouting exercise in life sciences sector. Skyquest, in collaboration with the foundation, is organising an event, Tech Transfer 2010, on August 28, 2010 at PERD Centre in Ahmedabad to connect innovators and the industry for mutual growth through commercialisation of the research outcomes.