Leap from lab idea to business venture,NCL paves the way

V Premnath,director,Venture Centre,NCL,said,“Of the 20 companies,four are NCL affiliated. Some others have been started by former NCL scientists. Then there is another company that was floated by a group comprising some scientists from NCL and a few people from the IITs. However,this is a relatively new concept,started after a government notification in August 2009 that allowed scientists from public labs to start business ventures.”

The Accelerated Commercialisation of Technology and Innovation (ACTIV) workshop,organised by the British High Commission recently saw the participation of many such scientists who have forayed into the area of culminating business with science innovation. Most scientists felt that including university spin out companies will also take forward the cause as a major share of funded research takes place at the university level.

Bharat Lohani,associate professor,Indian Institute of Technology (IIT),Kanpur,who has been running,GEOKNO,a company based in Kanpur for more than an year with a team of about 18 ex-students said,“Most of us from the academia have the technical know-how. While IITs have provisions to let their faculty start their own commercial ventures,most of us don’t know where to begin. This kind of an effort can help us make the transition and provide a knowledge and experience sharing platform.”

At present in IIT,Kanpur about 15 such university spin outs are at the incubation stages. Another eight have already completed the incubation phase and are running in the commercial sector.

Speaking to The Indian Express,Christopher J Darby,head,Science and Innovation,British High Commission,said,“At present both Indian as well as UK are grappling with the same problem – how to make the most of public funded research. With the current five year plan of India emphasising on innovation,a lot can be achieved in this direction. While in the US and Japan,university level research has actually been applied for industrial innovation,Europe and other parts of the world are yet to exploit the possibilities in that area.”