In its endeavour to extend support to academia in the form of grant-in aid for validation of the proof of concept (PoC) by an industrial partner, the  Department of Biotechnology (DBT) will soon begin a programme called contract research and services scheme (CRS).

The CRS scheme is being launched under the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Programme (BIRAP) which was earlier launched by the DBT with an objective to facilitate innovative research in the country in the field of biotechnology.

The scheme would support the academia-industry interaction between research institutes, universities, public funded research laboratories, governmental organizations, research foundations and companies/industries under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

Under this scheme, public sector research institutes, universities who have already generated or have pre-existing scientifically established proof of concept/leads could seek support for specific research and validation process to be performed by a company partners within a defined time frame. The industry partner in turn would complete the validation phase in a contract research mode. In addition, if the Academic group requires some specific services from the industry such as toxicology, sequencing, use of specific equipment etc. these could also be supported under this scheme.

Public and/or private universities and research institutions can apply under the scheme with pre-determined company partners having DSIR recognized R&D/service units. For contract research, available leads should be at a level which provides sufficient data for scale up/validation and may fall under the categories but not limited to exploratory validation of technology; small scale contract research resulting in generating several batches of process or multiple prototypes; and large scale validation of prototype to commercial design.

For primary applicant (academia), public and/or private universities and research institutions having a well established research support system, for basic or applied research are eligible under this scheme. The research group should necessarily have an established lead (as evidenced by scientific data) ready for validation/outsourced services. And for collaborating companies, eligibility is only for Indian companies, registered under the Indian Companies Act 1956 and in which more than 51 per cent of the ownership is held by Indian citizens (including NRls) and having DSIR recognised in-house R&D unit, which is interested to perform such a contract research service with academic partner.