The Department of Biotechnology (DBT ) through its conscious efforts has continuously fostered research initiatives in various challenging areas of bioengineering. More recently it has been felt that robotics has contributed immensely in the field of medicine.
India’s focus so far has been concentrated towards industrial robots and materials handling robots, and an impetus is needed to spur collaborative oriented research pertaining to robotics in medicine, bridging the disconnect between engineering research and medical institutions in India. Moreover, medical devices is an area where engineers could profusely contribute to translate their innovative ideas into a practicable application. It is under this background that the DBT has decide to begin research in these areas.
Bioengineering is defined as the “biological or medical application of engineering principles or engineering equipment – also called biomedical engineering.”It can be considered as the application of engineering principles to biological systems.
Bioengineering as a defined field is relatively new, although attempts to solve biological problems have persisted throughout history. Recently, the practice of bioengineering has expanded beyond large-scale efforts like prosthetics and hospital equipment to include engineering at the molecular and cellular level – with applications in energy and the environment as well as healthcare.
A very broad area of study, bioengineering can include elements of electrical and mechanical engineering, computer science, materials, chemistry and biology
The DBT will soon begin research in the field of bioengineering, which is an interdisciplinary field of science wherein challenges in biology are addressed with solutions from cross disciplinary fields of science and engineering.
The focus areas of the research will be on robotics in medicine; brain-computer interface technologies; bioengineering of implantable medical devices; engineering of point of care devices for early detection and diagnosis of diseases; and some combination of all these areas.
In the area of robotics in medicine, proposals are invited towards innovative engineering approaches to develop navigational robots for surgery, haptics incorporated simulators for medical and surgical training, surgical assist technologies, and robotic devices for rehabilitation including prosthetics and mobility devices. In the area of brain-computer interface technologies, the research will focus on human-machine interfaces for people with severe physical impairment, and for intuitive control of prosthetics and mobility devices, and related applications.
In the bioengineering of implantable medical devices area, the DBT has invited proposals from eligible scientists to develop implants or tissue engineered devices, organ assist devices, artificial or tissue engineered organs, implantable diagnostic devices integrated with electronics. And in the area of engineering of point of care devices for early detection and diagnosis of diseases, the DBT has invited proposals from scientists for point of care devices, including preventive technologies, non-invasive monitoring technologies, integrated mobile technologies, point of care photonics and wireless systems.
Scientists working in the universities, academic institutions, national laboratories, medical schools with sound scientific backgrounds and relevant publications in proposed area will be eligible to participate in this programme.
The Industry Innovation Programme on Medical Electronics (IIPME) recently launched by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) in partnership with the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) will help a lot to promote and foster cutting edge technologies in the multi-disciplinary areas of medical electronics.
The programme will promote the scientific and technological research in medical electronics sector so as to make innovative medical electronics available, accessible and affordable to the people at the bottom of the pyramid.
BIRAC, a public sector undertaking under the DBT, has been set up as an interface agency to nurture innovation research and promote affordable product development through public-private partnership.
The programme which aims to encourage development of innovative solutions that can make the technology available and bring significant changes in the medical electronics ecosystem, focuses on technologies for chronic diseases; convergence of medical device and bioinformatics; increasing the outreach through medical electronics; and imaging and navigation.
Under this programme, BIRAC has invited proposals from innovators, start-ups, SMEs and large Indian companies individually or in partnership or consortia mode for medical technologies ranging from hand-held point of care devices to large equipments, wearable gadgets to outreach devices, and from health tracking devices to RADAR technology based ultrasound machines.
Medical electronics is a branch of electronics that deals with design, implementation and use of electrical devices and equipment for medical purposes such as research, examination, diagnosis, treatment, assistance and care. Medical electronics utilizes field disciplines of both electronics and biomedical. Portable biomedical electronic devices are essential to move medical products from the hospital atmosphere to home, and to move medical examination from the laboratory and offer one- touch access to users.
These devices offer secure access and enable both patients and doctors to stay in touch with each other remotely. The IIPME will be one of its kinds, which will directly target the innovations in the medical electronics start-ups, SMEs and large enterprises and will also help in generating the ideas to keep ready the pipeline of new unmet medical innovations.
The three main pillars of the programme are to support cutting edge technologies in multi-disciplinary areas of medical electronics; to address the challenges of R&D in medical electronics and develop the conducive ecosystem; and to foster and promote the research in medical electronics to make it available, accessible and affordable.
Recently BIRAC and the Bpifrance financement (Bpifrance), a public investment bank from France have issued a call for Joint Expression of Interest (JEOI) for Indian and French SMEs/start-ups in the area of red biotechnology upto commercialization stage. Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA) will implement this call on behalf of BIRAC.
The project proposals will be focused on development of industrial application oriented health technologies in the areas of cancer, cardiac and infectious diseases.
The prime focus of this joint programme is the identification of new targets or biomarkers that leads to development of sensitive, specific and affordable diagnostic tests. These targets or biomarkers should be novel based on substantial theoretical evidences on which further proof-of-concept could be developed for futuristic possibility of product development.
The proposals that involve development of new therapeutic options in terms of therapeutic protein or drugs are also encouraged for these targeted diseases in the current call that has potential for commercialization. Proposal that involves affordable process development for existing therapeutics will also be encouraged that have potential implication on effective industrial scale-up for cost effective production.
Project proposal shall have at least one start-up/SME from India and one from France each as joint applicant (1+1 model). They can have Co- Applicants and Collaborators from Academia, Research Institution, National Laboratory, Clinical Establishment, For Profit Company, Not-for-Profit Organization, Society, LLP, Trust or Foundation.
Earlier BIRAC, under its Small Business Innovation Research Initiative (SBIRI) scheme, had invited proposals from Indian biotech companies for funding of research and development in the field of biotechnology.
Under this SBIRI scheme, the BIRAC will provide support for discovery, proof-of-concept and early stage innovations, and R&D aimed at affordable product development.
The major aims of this programme are to nurture and mentor innovative and emerging technologies/ entrepreneurs, to assist new enterprises to forge appropriate linkages with academia and government; to create opportunities for starting new technology-based or knowledge-based businesses by science entrepreneurs; and to stimulate technological innovations.
Under this flagship public-private partnership programme, the BIRAC will support early stage and proof-of-concept for innovations based on valid hypothesis, R&D aimed at affordable product development, lab-scale technology refinement, validation of a technology at pilot scale, platform technologies/prototype development, etc.
Under this programme, financial support is extended as a grant-in-aid limited to Rs. 50.00 lakhs with a contribution from the company. Collaborating public or private institutions and universities are eligible for grant-in-aid. The companies can send their proposals till March 31, 2015.
The DBT had launched the SBIRI scheme to boost public-private-partnership effort in the country. The distinctive feature of SBIRI is that it supports the high-risk pre-proof-of-concept research and late stage development in small and medium companies led by innovators with science backgrounds which is unique in nature to support private industries and to get them involved in development of such products and processes which have high societal relevance. SBIRI has unique process for generating ideas by bringing users and producers of technology together, it has the direct focus on producing product and a sense of urgency for producing defined results that only private sector engagement can produce.
Under its Contract Research Scheme (CRS), the BIRAC had invited proposals from the public and private universities and research institutions to take their proof of concept leads and technologies towards commercial scale.
Through the CRS funding, BIRAC extends support to academic institutes across the country to take forward their research leads through validation and translation by industry. Funding is in the form of grant which is given to both the academic as well as the industrial partner. Under CRS, the industry performs its role as a ‘validation partner’ and engages on a contractual basis while the IP rights reside solely with the academic partner. One of BIRAC’s major focuses is enabling public funded research to be commercialized and creating effective linkages between academia and industry.
The scheme supports academia for engaging the industry in contract research mode under a specific fee structure for taking forward their leads/technologies towards validation and commercialization. The academia should necessarily have an established lead as evident by scientific data ready for validation. The scheme also supports academia for some specific services such as toxicology studies, gene sequencing studies etc. as a part of validation studies and commercial scale development.
Grant-in-aid is provided to the academia for in-house research which forms a part of validation of the proof of concept. The IP rights reside with the academia. The industry partner will have first right of refusal for commercial exploitation of the
New IP. However, exploratory research or fundamental discovery with no PoC is not supported.
Academia has to be the primary applicant with one or more partners of which at least one is an industry.
The proposers if so required can opt for additional partners from another industry and/or academia.
Bio-medical devices and instruments, healthcare clinical trials, healthcare, healthcare-molecular biology, healthcare-preclinical, healthcare-diagnostics, healthcare-oncology, healthcare-vaccines, biosimilars, biologicals, new drug discovery, development, nutraceuticals, etc are some of the eligible categories and corresponding relevant areas of this proposal.
Earlier, the CRS was launched by BIRAC to extend support to academia in the form of grant-in aid for validation of the proof of concept (PoC) by an industrial partner. It was launched in the backdrop of the fact that numerous lab scale research leads are being generated in the academic sector through funding from various agencies like DBT, CSIR, DST, DRDO etc., which have the potential for validation and translation into products. Currently the academia is capable of limited translational research, however, product development is generally not a part of their mandate. Moreover, they may not have the required infrastructure to take on product development and commercialization activity.
The DBT, under its advanced technology scheme Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP), had invited fresh proposals from biotech companies for providing support on a cost sharing basis targeted at development of novel and high risk futuristic technologies mainly for viability gap funding and enhancing existing R&D capacities of start-ups and SMEs in key areas of national importance and public good.
DBT is operating this scheme through Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Programme (BIRAP), a not-for-profit public sector undertaking set up by DBT to nurture the biotech innovation ecosystem, support start-ups and SME’s for innovation research and promote affordable product development through public-private partnership.