Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan inaugurates Bio-Innovation Centre in CSIR-IMTECH

New Delhi: In a major boost to entrepreneurship in the area of Life Sciences, Union Minister for Science & Technology Dr. Harsh Vardhan inaugurated the IMTECH Bio-Innovation Centre which is an extension of the Atal Incubation Centre (AIC)-CCMB in CSIR-Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh.

The aim of the IMTECH Bio-Innovation Centre is to become a hub for life-sciences and biotechnology startups and MSME’s from all over the country in a very short span of time. Supported by an efficient ecosystem at IMTECH, the incubates shall have an additional edge to house and succeed with the capital of combined knowledge of scientific research, product development, process scale up to pilot level  and a world class infrastructure.

Dr Harsh Vardhan who is on a two-day visit to Chandigarh lauded the efforts of CSIR in establishing the extension Centre in Chandigarh which shall have a positive impact on the entrepreneur ecosystem in the northern region of the country.

Speaking at the occasion Dr Harsh Vardhan said “Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is a flagship initiative of our Government under the leadership of our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to promote culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in India. It is an umbrella structure that has been mandated to promote innovation and revolutionize entrepreneurial ecosystem in the country. With this Bio-Innovation Centre in IMTECH, we are dedicated to nurturing a thriving ecosystem for start-ups and innovators with early-stage technologies by leveraging the scientific competencies of CSIR-IMTECH particularly in the area of life sciences”. The AIC at IMTECH aims to actively engage startups with mentors, alumni, fund providers, experts, consultants and industry to build an empowering ecosystem through various programs and activities.

Dr. Sanjeev Khosla, Director IMTECH while welcoming the Minister, apprised Dr. Harsh Vardhan about the various activities of the institute and especially the work done by the scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic in the last one year. It is important to state that CSIR-IMTECH was one of the first few labs to commence COVID-19 testing in the region and has augmented its efforts through its work on air sampling, sewage surveillance and genome sequencing of the strain for better predictive analysis of how the SARS-COV-2 virus is spreading.

Dr Harsh Vardhan also visited the various labs of the institute and interacted with scientists and students at IMTECH and urged them to work towards an AtmaNirbhar Bharat for meeting India’s unmet societal needs.

Speaking at the occasion, Dr. Khosla said “Spread over an area of 2800 sq.ft, the AIC-CCMB extension center being established at IMTECH shall offer customizable plug and play model to incubate with shared wet research facilities, industry standard equipment and operating facilities. This shall couple with distinguished experts for mentoring the start-ups, business planning support, access to seed capital, industry partners, and trainings for nurturing innovative start-up businesses in their pursuit to become scalable and sustainable.

CSIR-IMTECH is a national center for excellence in microbial sciences and was established in 1984. IMTECH’s vision and mission are to create translational ecosystem strengthened by fundamental discoveries and to address unmet healthcare and industrial needs with state-of-the-art processes and platforms respectively.