Grants for Energy & Environment Technologies in India

Deadline: 10-Jun-23

Venture Center and Cummins India Foundation have teamed up to support entrepreneurs / start ups working on technologies in energy and environment domain and generating potential social impact.

Under its Corporate Social Responsibility activities Cummins India Foundation has provided funding for implementing technologies with potential social impact relating to energy & environment at Venture Centre.

Objectives

• To support technology incubation and technology entrepreneurs associated with Venture Center, an incubator approved by the Central Government (DST-NSTEDB and DBT – BIRAC of Ministry of Science and Technology).
• Promote application of modern/advanced technologies to socio-economic problem solving.

Scope

• Cummins CSR Grant will enable an entrepreneur / startup to do field testing / conducting pilot studies and adoption of appropriate technologies to address social needs.
• Without limiting scope unduly, the projects and technology entrepreneurs chosen shall be:
• Focused on a leveraging science and technology/ inventions
• Focused on building a sustainable and scalable entrepreneurial venture
• Theme of Energy & Environment ( eg : energy efficiency, renewable energy, air pollution, provisions for drinking water, waste management etc.)
• There shall be no restriction on the background of the entrepreneur. However, preference may be given to:
  • Women entrepreneurs
  • Startups with validated technology addressing problems related to Energy and Environment
  • Social enterprises
  • Any other criteria suggested by the Project Oversight Committee (POC).

Focus Areas

• The areas which will be considered for grant are called as key focus areas and are listed down as follows
  • Energy & Environment
  • Energy efficiency
  • Renewable energy
  • Air pollution
  • Provisions for drinking water
  • Waste management
  • Alternative Energy
  • Environment Clean tech
  • Biomass utilization etc…

Funding Information

• Grant for conducting pilot trials / field testing / technology implementation upto Rs. 10 lakhs !!!

Nature of Projects Supported

• Eligible
  • The project needs to define a technology solution to a well-defined problem
  • The technology should be innovative/ novel
  • Project should be focused on implementing a technology / conducting pilot studies.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligibility of Applicants and Project Leaders for projects
• Every project proposal will need to identify a Project Leader and an Applicant/ Grantee
• The Project Leader (PL) will be an individual who will take responsibility for executing the project.
• The Applicant or Grantee can be either of the following:
  • Case 1: Applicant is an individual
  • Case 2: Applicant is a company
• PL has to be an individual (one person).
• PL is required to be at least 18 years of age as on the date of call for applications.
• PL is required to be Indian Citizen. An Indian citizen is defined as one who is in possession of a government approved proof of nationality such as a valid passport, voter’s id etc. Exceptional cases of foreign nationals with potential for impact in India will be considered.
• PL has to pursue the project or startup full time with no other concurrent commitments during the project duration.
• PL cannot be pursuing a long-term academic/research project (like doctoral students) with significant obligations during the project duration.
• PL must have completed basic undergraduate training in natural sciences/engineering/ medicine. Essential qualification is PhD/ MTech/ BTech/ BPharm /MD/ MBBS/ BDS/ MSc / MPhil/ M Des/ MPH /MBA / MSW and equivalents, with under‐ graduate training in Science, Medicine, Engineering. Applicants with a BSc degree with at least 1 year of full-time work or research experience shall also be eligible
• If Applicant is a company, the Company/LLP should be registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1956/2013
• The company should be owned by resident Indian citizens i.e. minimum 51% of the capital is beneficially owned by resident Indian citizen(s) and / or Indian companies, which are ultimately owned and controlled by resident Indian citizens.

Selection Criteria

• Technical soundness & do ability
• Technology should be at an implementation stage
• Potential for social impact
• Team capabilities & background
• Knowledge intensity or novelty or IP potential
• Execution & commercialization plan
• Exceptional cases may be considered on its merit by the committee
• Any others as decided by the committee.

For more information, visit Grant for Energy & Environment Technologies.