Hyderabad University to host giant bio-incubator facility

Hyderabad: One of India’s largest bio-Incubator facility was recently inaugurated in Hyderabad on the eve of National Science Day. The 20,000 square feet facility located at the School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad (UoH) is supported by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a unit of Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi.

The BioNEST will incubate startups and entrepreneurs in the life sciences, biotechnology, healthcare and allied areas of research.

Professor. G Padmanabhan, Padma awardee and former Director, Indian Institute of Science who inaugurated the BioNEST commented that he has seen five such facilities in the country but this facility is the best among them. He called upon the women researchers to take up start-ups and work towards entrepreneurship.

Professor. E. Premkumar Reddy, Director of Experimental Cancer Therapeutics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York was the guest of honor at the event.

As per Professor Appa Rao Podile, Vice-Chancellor, UoH, “The selection procedure will be stringent for the incubates and we are confident that we will have good start-ups at our facility. The UoH will have the reputation of having one of the best Bio-Incubator facilities in the World.”

The 20,000 plus square feet facility can accommodate 30 startups and provide 16 benches for research. More than 350 PhD scholars, faculty is available in the School of Life Sciences who can help in collaborations and consulting for the start-ups. The facility is expected to bring together the high-quality researchers in the University and budding entrepreneurs either from the university or from outside to catalyse scientific enterprises that would focus on life sciences, biotechnology, Health care and allied areas.

The prospective entrepreneur will enjoy accessing the general facilities and instrument of the incubator as well as specialty instruments and facilities of the school of life sciences and the University of Hyderabad.

UoH already made its entrepreneurship entry through Technology Business Incubator (TBI) funded through Department of Science and Technology, Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurship Program (TIDE) funded through Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

The proposed incubation facility broadly fulfils the UoH’s vision of innovation and entrepreneurship through cutting edge science and technology that engages students, researchers, and faculty in the region. The facility will have profound impact on the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem of the region in general and the campus in particular.