With aim to facilitate sustainable industry-academia partnerships, IIT Gandhinagar organises ORBIT
The first edition of ORBIT (Outreach, Research, Breakthrough, Innovation, and Technology) discussed industry-academia collaboration avenues, funding mechanisms, and regulatory challenges in the biomedical engineering domain. Additionally, the need for support, policy pipelines, structural changes to tackle challenges in testing, productisation, infrastructure access, and sustainable partnerships was also deliberated upon.
Prof Amit Prashant, Dean, Research and Development, highlighted the need to 'bridge the timeline and communication gap between academia and industry', and to build partnerships on the foundation of trust.
IITGN faculty and stakeholders from the Institute's Research Park, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center, Industry Connect, and Career Development Cell interacted with the representatives from MSMEs, pharma companies, and startups. As they exchanged ideas and spoke of their experiences, the participants shared the need for pipelines and policies that would boost productisation, patenting, and translational activities. Additionally, several problem statements were put forth by companies like Zydus Lifesciences, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, Biotech Vision Care, Axio Biosolutions, IOTA Diagnostic, Salvo India, Spotdot Bioinnovations, and others.
Speaking of the opportunities provided by the state government, Dr Anand N Bhadalkar, Director, Savli Technology and Business Incubator (STBI), emphasised the role of the organisation in offering comprehensive support to early-stage startups in the life sciences and healthcare sectors. He mentioned how STBI co-develops grant proposals with funding organisations, launches joint projects and co-incubation efforts with academic partners like IITGN, and provides incubation space, testing facilities, mentorship, and Intellectual Property (IP), and licensing support to startups.
The event also highlighted IITGN's latest industry ready programmes, including a six-month credited internship for final-year undergraduates and several Executive Masters degree programmes in areas of emerging technologies. The conclave concluded with a visit to the Research Park.
'ORBIT reaffirmed that innovation in biomedical engineering thrives when academia and industry engage as equal partners,' said Prof Soumyadip Sett, Faculty in-charge, Industry Connect, IITGN.
The next edition of ORBIT is scheduled to be held in September and will focus on Electric Vehicles.
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