Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP)

What is BIPP?

The Biotechnology Industry Partnership Programme (BIPP) is an advanced technology scheme run by BIRAC. The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a not-for-profit Section 8 public sector enterprise set up by the Department of Biotechnology in 2012. BIPP was approved by the Government of India in November 2008 as a public-private partnership scheme for promoting innovation research in the biotech sector, and was launched in January 2009.

According to the BIPP scheme guidelines, BIPP provides public support on a cost-sharing basis for path-breaking research in frontier, futuristic technology areas with major economic potential, and for the development of technologies in recognised national priority areas; agriculture, health, bioenergy and green manufacturing.

BIPP is not a citizen benefit scheme. BIPP funds companies and LLPs, not individuals.

Key features

• BIPP supports only high-risk, transformational technology or process development. Incremental development is not funded.
• A project submitted under BIPP must end at Technology Readiness Level 7 or above.
• The project must necessarily generate novel intellectual property, and the IP rights belong to the industry partner.
• Support is grant-in-aid only, with milestone-based disbursement.
• There is no cap on funding, but costs must be commensurate with the activities supported.

What are the four BIPP categories?

Who is eligible for BIPP?

The following can apply:

• A single company or a consortium of companies incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013.
• An LLP incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008.
• Either of the above, jointly with public or private universities and colleges in India, national research laboratories, or not-for-profit private research labs, societies, foundations and NGOs as collaborators.

Eligibility conditions

• For a company, at least 51% of shares must be held by Indian citizens holding an Indian passport. Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) do not count as Indian citizens for this test.
• For an LLP, at least half of the persons who subscribed their names as partners must be Indian citizens.
• The applicant must have an adequate in-house facility to implement the project, verified during the site visit, or be incubated at a recognised incubation facility.
• An academic collaborator must have proper registration or accreditation from a government body, UGC affiliation, AICTE, CSIR, DSIR or SIRO certification.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual. There is no individual or personal benefit under BIPP, and no citizen application route exists.
• Your company withdrew a proposal after Apex Committee approval, or had a project foreclosed for inadequate funds or any other irregularity, such companies are debarred from the next 2 calls or 1 year, unless the withdrawal was only because papers were not ready.
• Your company, subsidiary or sister concern has defaulted on repayment of a BIRAC loan or interest, is irregular on instalments, has not paid back unspent balance, or has not paid royalty due to BIRAC, such applicants are not eligible for financial assistance.
• Your company has a director of a defaulting company as described above.
• Your proposal is for incremental development rather than transformational technology development.
• The same or a similar proposal is already funded by another agency.

A company may not have more than two ongoing projects as primary applicant and two as collaborator at any given time.

What documents are required for BIPP?

How to apply for BIPP funding

1. Log on to the BIRAC website at birac.nic.in and check whether a BIPP call for proposals is currently active. Calls are advertised in national dailies and biotechnology magazines and displayed on the BIRAC website.
2. If you are a registered user, log in. Otherwise select New User Registration and register your company or LLP. Company and LLP registration is open round the clock.
3. Collect the computer-generated password sent to the email address given at registration, and change it after first login.
4. After logging in, open the BIPP link under Programmes. The active call will be highlighted.
5. Click on the active call and prepare the proposal using the BIPP proforma and the BIPP User Guide available on the BIRAC website.
6. Fill in the technology description, proof-of-concept data, category (I, II, III A, III B or IV), milestones, budget and collaborator details.
7. Submit the undertaking that no other funding agency is supporting the same or a similar proposal.
8. Submit the proposal online before 17:30 hrs on the last date of the call. Only online submission is accepted.

How is a BIPP proposal evaluated?

According to the BIPP guidelines, evaluation runs through six stages:

1. Eligibility check of the submitted proposal.
2. Presentation before the Area Review Panel (ARP). The principal investigator presents to the relevant subject panel. The panels are Healthcare Devices; Healthcare Diagnostics; Healthcare Drugs, Drug Delivery, Biosimilars, Stem Cells, Vaccines and Clinical Trials; Agriculture, Veterinary Science and Aquaculture; and Environment, Energy and Secondary Agriculture.
3. Site visit or online interaction for due diligence on the in-house R&D facility, technical, IP and regulatory aspects.
4. Evaluation by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC), using the site visit report, a detailed IP search and regulatory requirements.
5. Financial due diligence on the applicant and every collaborator.
6. Final decision by the Apex Committee, chaired by the Secretary, DBT and Chairman, BIRAC.

Proposals are judged on novelty of the proposed product or technology, preliminary data generated, technical strength of the proof of concept, clarity of strategy, national and social relevance, the investigator's credentials and the expertise of the collaborative team, and commercial or translational potential.

The decision of the committee at any stage is final, and reconsideration requests are not entertained. An applicant may reapply in the next call.

How much does BIPP fund and how is it released?

Funding to companies, LLPs and Section 8 entities

• Start-ups incorporated less than 10 years before the call closes, which have not received BIRAC grant-in-aid before: a one-time grant-in-aid of up to Rs 50 lakh. If the start-up's budget in the project is below Rs 50 lakh, up to 100% grant-in-aid; if it is Rs 50 lakh or more, Rs 50 lakh plus up to 70% of the amount exceeding Rs 50 lakh.
• Start-ups that have already received BIRAC grant-in-aid, and all companies in existence for more than 10 years: irrespective of project cost, BIRAC's contribution is restricted to a maximum of 70% of that entity's total budget. A minimum of 30% must be contributed by the company.

Funding to research institutions as collaborators only

• Centre or state-owned research institutions, universities, societies and trusts: up to 100% grant-in-aid, irrespective of project cost.
• Private research institutions, universities, societies and trusts that have not received BIRAC grant-in-aid before: the same Rs 50 lakh / 70% structure as start-ups. Those that have already received BIRAC grant-in-aid are capped at 70% of their budget.

Release schedule

1. First instalment on signing of the contract.
2. Second instalment on completion of the first technical milestone.
3. Third instalment on completion of the second technical milestone.
4. Fourth instalment on submission of the project completion report.

It is mandatory for the applicant company to put in its own contribution before each BIRAC instalment is released, and the last instalment is a reimbursement; funds are released after the project is complete.

Who to contact about BIPP

BIRAC's office is at 5th Floor, NSIC Business Park, NSIC Bhawan, Okhla Industrial Estate, New Delhi 110020. The published telephone number is 011-24389600 and the email is birac.dbt@nic.in. Call-specific queries are answered at the email address printed in the relevant request for proposals.

There is no fee to apply, and BIRAC does not use agents or consultants to source proposals.

How to check your BIPP application status

BIPP has no separate public tracking number system for citizens to check, since applicants are companies and LLPs that submit and track proposals through their own BIRAC login, not a token or reference-number lookup portal.

1. Log in to your registered account at birac.nic.in with the credentials created at the time of registration.
2. Open the dashboard section for submitted proposals under the BIPP programme link. A submitted proposal shows its current stage: received, under eligibility check, listed for Area Review Panel presentation, under site visit, with the Technical Expert Committee, under financial due diligence, or placed before the Apex Committee.
3. Watch for stage-wise email communication from BIRAC. Applicants are informed by email when they are shortlisted for an Area Review Panel presentation, when a site visit is scheduled, and when the Apex Committee has taken a final decision, so a working, regularly checked email address on file matters more than any portal refresh.
4. If a proposal has moved to a technical or financial evaluation stage and no update has been received for several weeks, email the call-specific address printed in the request for proposals, or write to birac.dbt@nic.in, quoting the proposal reference number generated at submission and the category applied under.
5. For urgent or unresolved queries, call the BIRAC office at 011-24389600 and ask for the programme officer handling BIPP, since front-desk staff cannot look up file-level status over the phone without the proposal reference number.
6. After approval, once a project is running, the status that matters is milestone completion, not application status. Instalment release depends on BIRAC receiving and accepting the milestone or completion report, so track that through the same login and the assigned programme officer rather than expecting an automatic notification.

Because the decision of the committee at any stage is final and reconsideration requests are not entertained, a status check after a rejection is only useful to confirm the outcome, not to seek a review; the only recourse is to apply again in a later call.

Common reasons BIPP proposals get rejected

• Proposal is for incremental, not transformational, development. BIPP funds only high-risk technology or process development ending at Technology Readiness Level 7 or above. A proposal that improves an existing product marginally, rather than developing genuinely novel IP, is screened out at the eligibility or Area Review Panel stage. Fix: reframe the proposal around the specific novel technical risk being retired, and show what result would not exist without this funding.

• Indian shareholding falls short of the 51% threshold. Many rejections trace to shareholding structures that count Persons of Indian Origin or Overseas Citizens of India as Indian, which BIPP does not permit for this test. Fix: verify the exact shareholding register before applying, and restructure holdings if needed well before a call opens, since this cannot be fixed after submission.

• No adequate in-house R&D facility, and no valid incubation arrangement. Applicants without their own laboratory infrastructure and without a real incubation agreement at a recognised facility fail the site-visit due diligence even after clearing the paper stage. Fix: secure a documented incubation agreement with a recognised facility before applying if you lack in-house infrastructure, and be ready for a physical or online verification of that facility.

• Missing or weak proof-of-concept data. A proposal with an idea but no preliminary experimental data to support technical feasibility is marked down by the Area Review Panel and Technical Expert Committee, since BIPP funds late-stage development, not concept-stage research. Fix: generate and document sufficient proof-of-concept results before applying, since this stage is meant for validated technology, not early ideas.

• Duplicate funding for the same or a similar proposal. BIPP requires an undertaking that no other agency is funding the same or a similar proposal, and cross-checks against other government scheme databases catch overlapping applications. Fix: disclose all other funding applied for or received for the same technology, and apply to only one late-stage scheme for a given proposal at a time.

• Applicant or a company director carries a BIRAC default history. A company that has defaulted on repayment of a BIRAC loan or interest, missed instalments, not returned unspent balance, or not paid royalty due, is barred, and this extends to a company with a director who was on the board of such a defaulting company. Fix: settle any outstanding BIRAC dues in full before a director linked to that history applies through a new entity.

• Debarment from a prior withdrawal or foreclosure. Withdrawing a proposal after Apex Committee approval, or having an earlier project foreclosed for inadequate funds or irregularity, results in debarment from the next 2 calls or 1 year. Fix: wait out the debarment period, and if a withdrawal is unavoidable, do it before Apex Committee approval and keep documentation showing the reason was that papers were not ready.

• Financial due diligence raises doubts about the company or a collaborator. Weak or inconsistent audited financial statements for the applicant or any named collaborator can stall or fail the financial due diligence stage even after strong technical review. Fix: ensure every collaborator named in the proposal has clean, current audited financials ready before the proposal is submitted, not only the lead applicant.

• Proposal exceeds the two-project limit. An applicant already running two projects as primary applicant, or two as collaborator, is not eligible to add another until one closes. Fix: check your company's current BIPP project count on the login dashboard before preparing a new submission.