Announcements

Objectives

Through a competitive grants program, the Fund selects and supports financially promising joint U.S.-India entrepreneurial initiatives that address the theme of "commercializing technologies for societal impact." These initiatives can originate from government, academic, non-governmental or commercial entities, and any combination thereof provided they focus on applied R&D, incorporate a business plan and proof of commercial concept, and have significant sustainable commercial potential.

Format And Guidelines

Press Release

Events

First Event

First Event

September 16,2017

Event

second

second

December 17,2018

second

New Year (2019)

New Year (2019)

January 1,2019

Awards

Board Members

Indian Members

Dr. Arabinda Mitra

amitra@nic.in

(Co Chair), Advisor & Head (IBCD)

Department of Science & Technology Govt. of India

Mr. H.K. Mittal

hk.mittal@nic.in

National S&T Entrepreneurship Development Board

Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi

Dr. Alka Sharma

alka.dbt@nic.in

Director

Department of Biotechnology Govt. of India

Dr. Rajesh Ranjan

dirams@mea.gov.in

Director (Americas)

Ministry of External Affairs Govt of India, New Delhi

Dr. Vipin Kumar

vipin@nifindia.org

Director & Chief

National Innovation Foundation Ahmedabad

Mr. Anantapadmanabhan Anantaram Sarma

aasarma@sidbiventure.co.in

Former Managing Director and CEO

SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd, Mumbai

Dr. Shirshendu Mukherjee

mdpmubmgf.birac@nic.in

Mission Director of Programme Management

Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), New Delhi

U.S Members

Mr. J. Robert Garverick

GarverickJR@state.gov

(Co-Chair) Minister Counsellor

Economic, Environment, Science & Technology Affairs Embassy of the United States of America, New Delhi

Dr. Steven M. Ferguson

fergusos@mail.nih.gov

Special Advisor Office of Technology Transfer

National Institutes of Health, MD

Talat Hasan

talatfh@gmail.com

General Partner

Hitek Venture Partners, CA

Dr. Phillip Singerman

phillip.singerman@nist.gov

Associate Director Innovation

Institute of Standards and Technology, MD

Ms. Mojdeh Bahar

mojdeh.bahar@ars.usda.gov

Assistant Administrator

Agricultural Research Service U.S. Department of Agriculture, MD

Ms. Lisa Brodey

Director, Office of Science

International Environmental & Scientific Affairs U.S.

Dr. Sashi Reddi

Philadelphia, PA

SRI CAPITAL

Philadelphia, PA

Gunjan Sinha

Gunjan@metricstream.com

Executive Chairman

Metricstream, CA

Mr. Peter T. Dabrowski

pdabrowski@tanocapital.com

Manging Director Tano

Capital/Tano Ventures Palo Alto, CA

Program Area

Healthy individual

Supports the development of affordable biomedical devices, diagnostic/preventive/curative measures, or food and nutrition products to improve health. (Drug development and clinical trials are not eligible activities in this category).

Empowering citizens

Supports efforts to reduce the digital/technology divide. This could include information and communication technologies with societal impact in areas such as water, agriculture, financial inclusion, and education, among other areas.

Subject to change with evolving priorities. Promising areas other than the above areas may also be considered.

Eligibility

Proposals must include a minimum of one partner from each country. Bi-national teams applying to the Endowment Fund will work together to commercialize technologies for societal impact.

The bi-national teams can include:

• Incorporated companies including start-up companies; or
• Non-incorporated entities; or
• Individuals or consortia from academia, government laboratories, non-government R&D institutions

As a general policy, participation of large companies is not encouraged as a competitor for USISTEF grants. However , their participation would be encouraged if they can bring distinct value to the partnering start-up and demonstrate their long term interest. Notional cost(s) can be provided to such large companies to take care of their direct expenses.

Each bi-national team must include at the time of application an entrepreneurial (small-scale as opposed to large-scale) entity that will receive a portion of the grant and take the technology to the market. If partners are planning to form a new venture to commercialize the technology, the proposal should include planned incorporation date and the amount of grants requested for the new entity.

The teams should be able to accept the terms and conditions of the award (Annexure-I) in case the proposal is approved.

The relationship between the U.S. and Indian partners must be clearly defined, including ownership of intellectual property rights for the technology proposed to be developed and commercialized.

The applicants must make a credible case that the proposed technology can enter the market within 2-3 years.

Grant Size

Funding

Grants of up to Rs. 2.50 crores or approximately $400,000 (subject to prevailing exchange rate). Proposals outside this range may be considered under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the U.S.-India Science & Technology Endowment Board (hereafter referred to as the 'Board').

The applicants should put together their Budget requirement based on realistic assessment, corresponding to direct cost involved and properly justified by the nature and quantum of work involved. An attempt to do over budgeting simply to fill the bandwidth of maximum grant size is out rightly discouraged.

It may be noted that Endowment Fund is an Indian Rupee Fund and all the grants are denominated in Indian rupees (INR) only. Awards are made in tranches according to project milestones and installment amounts are fixed in Rupees. For U.S. Awardees, the grant is transferred after converting it into USD at the prevailing exchange rate as on the date of disbursement with no adjustment made for foreign exchange rate fluctuations. However, the applicants are encouraged to consider requesting a provision under the contingency line item of up to ten percent (10%) of the total budget in the event of a devaluation of the rupee against the dollar.

The Board will give stronger preference to proposals that include a reasonable balance in the distribution of work and the grant between Indian and U.S. partners.

Grants will be released in a phased manner based on successful completion of milestones (which may include requirements to raise/ invest additional outside funding to support the project).

All milestones for the grants will be specified at the time of the award.

The Board reserves the right to limit its award to selected project activities and milestones and in doing so approve partial funding.

Things to Remember

The applicants should thoroughly review the entire Information Handbook for detailed information and understanding the processing of the U.S. - India Science and Technology Endowment Fund at different stages¹ .

The evaluation of all the submitted applications will be undertaken by the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Board in consultation with external experts and per the need of the application.

¹It may be noted that the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Board may change the processes, timeline, formats and Terms and Conditions at any time without specific notice. The decisions of the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Board will be final.

Process And Timeline

Confidentiality And Intellectual Property Guidelines

All reviewers must sign a non-disclosure and conflict of interest agreement (Annexure VIII) with the Indo-US Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF), Executive Secretariat for the United States–India Science & Technology Endowment Board. All information provided throughout the proposal process will be kept in strict confidence; however, neither the Endowment Board nor IUSSTF will sign non-disclosure agreements with any applicants.

Earlier Awards

• Sixth Call Awards
• Fifth Call Awards
• Fourth Call Awards
• Third Call Awards
• Second Call Awards
• First Call Awards