BIRAC BIG — ₹50 Lakh Grant-in-Aid for Biotech Proof of Concept, Calls Every January and July
The first cheque for most Indian biotech startups
The Biotechnology Ignition Grant is BIRAC's flagship programme and the largest early-stage biotech funding scheme in the country. It gives an individual entrepreneur or a young startup up to ₹50 lakh as grant-in-aid over 18 months to take a scientific idea to proof of concept. There is no equity and no repayment; disbursement is tied to milestones and the project is monitored through one of BIRAC's BIG Partners — incubators and institutions that mentor the grantee.
Calls are national and predictable: BIRAC announces one on or around 1 January and another on or around 1 July, each open for 30 to 45 days. Applications are online only, through the BIRAC website. The scheme guidelines were revised in November 2025.
How the ₹50 lakh is released
| Instalment | Share | Trigger |
|---|---|---|
| First | Up to 30% | Signing of the grant agreement |
| Second | Up to 30% | Completion of milestone one |
| Third | Up to 30% | Completion of milestone two |
| Final | 5–10% | Project completion and final report |
- •Networking with experts, mentors, industry and investors through BIRAC's platforms
- •Specialised trainings and workshops during the tenure
- •A track record that BIRAC's later schemes — SEED, LEAP, SBIRI — recognise
BIRAC and its committees
BIRAC, a public-sector enterprise under the Department of Biotechnology, runs the call. Proposals go through eligibility screening, technical expert review, and a presentation before a selection committee; BIRAC's Expert Selection Committee makes the final recommendation. The BIG Partner hosting the grantee handles monitoring.
Individuals and startups, incubated somewhere
Individual entrepreneur
- •Indian citizen with a biotech idea
- •Must be incubated — at any incubator, BIRAC-supported or not
- •Expected to incorporate if the project succeeds
Startup
- •Company or LLP registered in India
- •Incorporated not earlier than five years before the call launch date
- •Incubated at an incubator; physical incubation for the project
- •Project in biotechnology broadly: therapeutics, diagnostics, devices, agri-biotech, industrial biotech, bioinformatics
- •Idea at the proof-of-concept stage — BIG does not fund late-stage development or commercialisation
What the BIRAC portal asks for
- •Certificate of Incorporation and shareholding pattern (startups); Aadhaar and PAN (individuals)
- •Incubation letter or agreement from the host incubator
- •Technical proposal on BIRAC's format: background, hypothesis, objectives, work plan, milestones, deliverables
- •Budget by head — manpower, consumables, equipment, outsourcing, travel, overheads
- •CVs of the applicant and key team members; publications and patents
- •Letters of support from collaborating institutions or clinicians, where relevant
- •Declaration of other funding received for the same project
- •Ethics or biosafety approvals where the work needs them, or a plan to obtain them
Questions founders ask about BIG
No equity. The current guidelines set out the grantee's post-project obligations, including reporting on commercialisation; check the November 2025 guidelines for the exact terms before signing.
Yes, if incorporation was not earlier than five years before the date the call launches. A company crossing five years between calls loses eligibility.
No. Incubation is a condition, though the incubator need not be BIRAC-supported. Many applicants sign up with a BioNEST incubator before the call.
SEED (up to ₹30 lakh equity) for post-PoC startups, LEAP (up to ₹1 crore) for piloting and commercialisation, and SBIRI or BIPP for larger development projects.