Biotech going ‘big’ in Bengaluru

I recently took over as the innovation lead in Science and Innovation Network India (SIN) team, which with India’s focus on translating research, is an important area of joint collaboration between the UK and India. To find out more about this collaboration I headed to Bengaluru, biotechnology hub of India for a networking event of start-ups, policy makers and well established companies.

My aim was to understand how key players were driving bio-innovation. I enjoyed visiting the city especially because of its temperate climate. Bengaluru is home to a large number of start-ups, especially in the technology domain, and is number 15 in Global Start-up Ecosystem 2015 rankings.

I wanted to understand if the same entrepreneurial approach was being applied to biotechnology. To find this out, I attended the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) BIG Conclave. BIRAC is a biotech enterprise with special focus on start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It runs a large number of funding schemes for industry innovations and Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) is one of it.

The conclave focused on BIG funded start-ups and provided them with opportunity to meet industry experts and other start-ups. This also brought together a dynamic mix of the bio-innovation ecosystem and an opportunity for start-ups to hear from the experts and share new ideas.

Dr. Renu Swarup, BIRAC’s Managing Director, opened the conclave. She emphasised on the significance of international collaborations. This included BIRAC’s collaboration with the Wellcome Trust in supporting innovations in translational medicine. Their first call was launched on 19 March 2014 with ‘Diagnostics for Infectious Diseases‘ as the theme. So far two projects have been given the green signal.

The conclave was hosted by the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP), which is working with UK partners to support bio-innovation. It has existing links with the UK through OneNucleus, IdeaSpace, Cambridge Enterprise, Judge Business School at Cambridge University, etc. They are helping to bridge the bio-innovation gap between the UK and India through joint work on translational research and fostering entrepreneurship.

I interacted with various entrepreneurs and academicians including C-CAMP entrepreneur, Dr Satya Tapas. Dr Satya’s team is developing next generation microscope for clinical diagnosis. We also discussed opportunities in the UK highlighting UK Trade and Investment‘s (UKTI) Tech Rocketship Awards. These awards support Indian entrepreneurs to go global through the UK. The attendee entrepreneurs expressed high interest in this competition.

As the event came to a close, I saw similarities in the entrepreneurial approach in the buzzing ecosystem of bio-innovators in the city. But it was different from technology though no less exciting.

Everyone at the conclave was very excited on what the future holds for biotechnology in Bengaluru – and so was I.