Minister of State for Science and Technology and CSIR Vice President Dr Jitendra Singh officially launched the BIRAC-BioNEST incubator facility at the CSIR-CFTRI campus, in Mysuruon friday.
This state-of-the-art facility is designed to nurture entrepreneurial talent in food bioprocessing and biotechnology research, to support advanced research, scaling and efficiency studies. It facilitates start-ups to turn innovative concepts into viable commercial technologies.
The center has so far supported 26 start-ups, including 12 physical incubators, 11 hybrid incubators and three graduate ventures. The collective incubated companies have filed 12 patents and contributed to 5 research publications in recognized journals.
Startups operate in advanced fields such as CRISPR technology, precision fermentation, probioticspostbiotics and botanicals, according to CFTRI officials.
The minister also laid the foundation stone for the hotel complex set up under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), at CSIR CFTRI’s MG Halli campus to strengthen the institute’s skill development initiatives to support the needs of the Indian food industry and also the government’s ‘Skill India’ initiatives in the field of food processing, officials said.
On Friday CSIR-CFTRI also entered into several MoUs.
They exchanged technology transfer agreements with DE3PBIO technologies for the transfer of ‘know how’ for 18 technologies to process fortified, low, functional, high glycemic index. protein foods, bakery/cereal novelties.
They entered into MoU with Bigbasket to develop a low GI low sugar release. They exchanged technology transfer agreements with MB Hosmani and sons, Hubballi to develop wheat and millet-based ready-to-cook products, including porridge and multigrain drink mixes, to fortify these products with essential micronutrients for pregnant and lactating women and children.
They have even entered into MM with Bloomrush feeds for the knowledge transfer of two technologies.
