National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS)

What is NM-ICPS?

The National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) is a national technology mission of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Ministry of Science and Technology. According to DST, the mission was approved by the Union Cabinet in December 2018 at a total outlay of Rs 3,660 crore for an initial period of five years. According to DST, the mission's active period was subsequently extended by four years, to December 2027, so the 25 hubs continue to run calls well beyond the original 2023 horizon.

NM-ICPS is not a citizen benefit scheme. No individual receives a payment, no beneficiary list exists, and there is no application for a personal entitlement. The mission funds institutions, research projects, startups and skilling programmes through competitive calls. Anyone arriving here expecting a direct benefit transfer is in the wrong place; anyone with a research proposal, a deep tech startup or an interest in skilling is not.

Cyber-physical systems are engineered systems in which computation, networking and physical processes are tightly integrated, the technology base under autonomous vehicles, smart grids, precision agriculture, robotics and industrial IoT.

Key objectives

• Build a national capability in cyber-physical systems and associated technologies.
• Move research from publication to translation and commercialisation.
• Create trained human resources at technician, engineer and researcher level.
• Seed a startup ecosystem around deep technology.
• Establish India in international collaborative research in these areas.

Main features

• 25 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIHs) at premier academic and R&D institutes.
• Each hub is a Section-8 company, an independent legal entity within its host institute, not a department of it.
• Each hub is assigned one technology vertical, avoiding duplication across institutes.
• Applications for technology areas including health, education, energy, environment, agriculture, strategic and security needs, and Industry 4.0.

What are the four verticals of NM-ICPS?

Every Technology Innovation Hub is required to deliver against four verticals, which is why a single hub issues several different kinds of call in a year:

1. Technology development and translation; translational research, prototype development and technology transfer to industry.
2. Human resource and skill development; training programmes, short courses and fellowships to build a trained workforce.
3. Entrepreneurship and startup development, incubation, startup grants and support through Technology Business Incubators.
4. International collaborative research: joint projects with foreign institutions in the hub's technology vertical.

Understanding which vertical your work sits in is the practical first step, because the eligibility, format and evaluation of a call differ sharply between a translational research grant and a startup incubation call.

Which Technology Innovation Hub covers your technology?

DST assigns each of the 25 hubs a distinct vertical:

Who is eligible for NM-ICPS support?

You can apply if:

• You are a researcher or faculty member at a recognised Indian academic or R&D institution, with a project proposal in a hub's technology vertical.
• You are a registered Indian startup or company working in a hub's technology area and responding to an incubation or startup call.
• You are a student or early-career researcher applying for a fellowship, internship or skilling programme advertised by a hub.
• You are an institution partnering on a skilling, incubation or international collaboration call.

You cannot apply if:

• You are an individual seeking a personal cash benefit. NM-ICPS makes no payment to citizens and has no beneficiary enrolment.
• Your work falls outside the technology verticals of all 25 hubs.
• You are applying directly to DST. DST does not receive project proposals under this mission; hubs run their own calls and their own selection.
• There is no open call matching your proposal. Hubs fund against advertised calls, not unsolicited applications.

What documents are required?

How to apply for NM-ICPS funding

There is no central NM-ICPS application form. Funding is obtained by responding to a call issued by one of the 25 Technology Innovation Hubs.

1. Identify the right hub by matching your work to a technology vertical from the table above — for example IIT Kanpur for cyber security, IISER Pune for quantum technologies, IIT Ropar for agricultural and water technologies.
2. Confirm which of the four verticals your proposal belongs to: technology development, skilling, entrepreneurship, or international collaboration. The call format and eligibility follow from this.
3. Open the hub's own portal through nmicps.in or the hub's page on its host institute's website, and check the current call for proposals. Calls are issued periodically, not continuously.
4. Register on the hub's proposal submission system and create an applicant profile.
5. Prepare the technical proposal in the hub's prescribed format, covering objectives, methodology, milestones, deliverables and the translation or commercialisation path.
6. Obtain institutional endorsement, a host institution letter for research proposals, or incorporation and shareholding documents for a startup call.
7. Submit the proposal with a milestone-linked budget before the call closing date.
8. Go through evaluation: screening, expert committee review and, in most hub calls, a presentation before selection.
9. Sign the agreement with the hub if selected. The hub, not DST, is the contracting and disbursing entity, since each hub is an independent Section-8 company.

What has NM-ICPS achieved?

According to the Department of Science & Technology:

• 496 technological products have been developed through the hubs, including 46 new technologies.
• More than 800 startups have benefited under the mission.
• 13 Technology Business Incubators have been established.
• 54 startups and spin-off companies have been created directly by the hubs.
• Around 928 jobs have been generated.
• 1,083 skill development programmes and 1,073 entrepreneurship development activities have been conducted.
• 32 international collaborations have been initiated, alongside 191 publications and IPR outputs.

DST cites specific outputs including an IoT-based vaccine temperature monitoring device developed at the IIT Ropar hub, COVID-19 screening methods from the IIT Bombay and IIT Jodhpur hubs, and an AI-driven chest X-ray interpretation platform from the IISc Bangalore hub.

Common reasons NM-ICPS proposals fail

• Wrong hub, the proposal is technically sound but outside that hub's assigned vertical.
• No open call. An unsolicited proposal sent outside a call window.
• Sent to DST instead of a hub, which the mission's structure does not accommodate.
• No institutional endorsement for a research proposal, or no incorporation documents for a startup call.
• No translation path, a proposal that reads as basic research with no prototype, product or deployment outcome, where the hub's mandate is translational.

Help and contact

• NM-ICPS Mission Office: 011-26590310
• Email: md-nmicps-dst@gov.in
• Mission portal: nmicps.in, which links to all 25 Technology Innovation Hubs
• DST page: dst.gov.in/national-mission-interdisciplinary-cyber-physical-systems-nm-icps

No fee is payable to submit a proposal to any Technology Innovation Hub, and neither DST nor the hubs appoint agents or consultants to secure funding.