BIRAC SPARSH — ₹50 Lakh Grant for Affordable, Socially Relevant Health Products
Grant money for products that must be cheap to matter
SPARSH is BIRAC's social innovation programme. It funds biotechnological products that address a pressing public-health or societal problem and can be delivered affordably at scale — the sort of product a commercial investor will not back because the margin is thin and the customer is poor. Support is grant-in-aid, up to ₹50 lakh over 18 months, under Component I (Affordable Product Development); Component II, the Social Innovation Immersion Programme, is a fellowship for individuals embedded with communities to identify needs.
Each call is announced on a theme with a large societal footprint. Recent themes have included waste to value, livestock health and improvement, new agricultural tools, reducing post-harvest losses and combating environmental pollution. A Letter of Intent is filed first; shortlisted applicants develop a full proposal.
What the grant provides
| Item | Position |
|---|---|
| Amount | Up to ₹50 lakh grant-in-aid, milestone-based |
| Period | Up to 18 months |
| Equity | None |
| Support | BIRAC's SPARSH centres for social innovation, mentoring, and connections to deployment partners |
BIRAC and its committees
BIRAC screens Letters of Intent for fit with the theme, invites full proposals, and puts them through technical review and a selection committee. Grant agreements are signed with BIRAC; monitoring is through a BIRAC-designated partner.
Young startups, affordable products
- •Indian biotech startup less than three years old, or an LLP less than three years old
- •Indian academic scientists and researchers are also eligible under Component I
- •Product must be affordable and relevant to societal health, matching the call's theme
- •Biotechnological approach — devices, diagnostics, formulations, biologicals, agri-biotech or environmental biotech
What the LoI and full proposal need
- •Certificate of Incorporation or LLP registration; shareholding or partner details
- •Letter of Intent on BIRAC's format: problem, proposed product, affordability logic, target population
- •Full proposal on shortlisting: technical plan, milestones, budget by head, deployment strategy
- •Evidence of need — field data, partner letters from NGOs, hospitals or agricultural bodies
- •CVs of the team; prior work and publications
- •Ethics, biosafety or regulatory plan as the product requires
- •Declaration of other grants for the same project
Questions founders ask about SPARSH
BIG funds any biotech proof of concept; SPARSH funds products with a defined social-health purpose that fit the call's theme, and is open to LLPs and academics as well as companies.
No. Letters of Intent are accepted only during a thematic call. BIRAC posts calls on its website and through its partners.
Not necessarily — SPARSH funds from ideation to validation. The proposal must show a credible path to an affordable product.
Yes. SPARSH is grant money at the front end; BIRAC's equity instruments follow for startups that reach commercialisation.