In an effort to encourage and promote entrepreneurship-driven businesses in the biotech space, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and the Association of Biotechnology Led Entrepreneurs (ABLE) have devised a strategy to attract the students through the Biotechnology Entrepreneurship Student Teams (BEST).

Conceived as an annual event, BEST India 2009 is devised as a national competition to assess the inherent entrepreneurial capability among the students. The competition which is for post-graduate and doctorate students in the life sciences space is aimed at developing promising biotechnology start-ups. The idea is to allow students to come up with a novel, innovative, lucrative and constructive business model. The BEST platform will allow students to be involved in commercialization of bio-science.

The competition calls for team spirit and leadership. Therefore each team with five members will have a leader. The application will include a concept note with a commercialization potential in any area of biotechnology.

A panel will screen the applications to shortlist 20 teams. The selected 20 teams will attend workshop to hone skills in starting a business venture. They will be trained in devising business strategies, intellectual property (IP), raising finance and case studies. After this, every team will generate a business plan based on their concept note which will be put forth to the jury through a 10 minute power point presentation. The submissions will be evaluated to identify three winning teams. DBT has set aside Rs 10 lakh as cash prize. Three winners will receive Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh respectively.

While there are several entrepreneurial driven projects including SBRI, BIPP, TDB, TIFAC and HGT supported by DBT, DST and DSIR in the non student category, BEST is the first event for the students in the biotech space. This is where BEST will help tap the talent pool and inculcate a spirit of entrepreneurship, besides providing an opportunity for exhibiting innovative capabilities among young candidates, Nandita Chandavarkar, director, Operations, ABLE told Pharmabiz.

Further, the winners will be given an opportunity to attend and present their business plans at ABLE's Annual BioInvest Conference which will be held in early November which is a congregation of life science companies, institutional investors and investment bankers to explore opportunities for funding.

The parameters for adjudging the concept note will be based on the viability of the business idea, scientific merit of the proposal and innovativeness opinion. The yardstick for business plan presentations will be reviewed for the commercialization potential of the business, innovative concept conviction and motivation of the team. With the closing date for applications slated for March 31, the teams will be in a competition mode from April 6, 2009 till July 30, 2009 for the final results.