Applications Invited for Joint Call for Proposals on Carbon Capture and its Utilization for Fostering High Performance Biomanufacturing under BioE3 Policy

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About the Organization

Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is a not-for-profit Section 8, Schedule B, Public Sector Enterprise, set up by Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India as an Interface Agency to strengthen and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to undertake strategic research and innovation, addressing nationally relevant product development needs.

BIRAC is a industry-academia interface and implements its mandate through a wide range of impact initiatives, be it providing access to risk capital through targeted funding, technology transfer, IP management and handholding schemes that help bring innovation excellence to the biotech firms and make them globally competitive. In its Eight years of existence, BIRAC has initiated several schemes, networks and platforms that help to bridge the existing gaps in the industry-academia Innovation research and facilitate novel, high quality affordable products development through cutting edge technologies. BIRAC has initiated partnerships with several national and global partners to collaborate and deliver the salient features of its mandate.

Vision:  “To Stimulate, foster and enhance the strategic research and innovation capabilities of the Indian biotech industry, particularly start-ups and SME’s, for creation of affordable products addressing the needs of the largest section of society”.

About the Grant

Carbon Capture and its Utilization has been identified as one of the thematic sectors under the BioE3 Policy for ‘fostering high-performance biomanufacturing’.  Biotechnological interventions to capture and utilize carbon dioxide (CO2) as a feedstock to create value-added products by harnessing the metabolic capabilities of microorganisms provide promising avenues for mitigating climate change and creating greener bio-economic opportunities.

Hence, DBT and BIRAC, intend to foster an innovative ecosystem for enabling development and deployment of technologies for carbon capture and its utilization with focus on energy efficiency, cost economics, sustainability and scalability for eventual industrial deployment.

In view of this, DBT and BIRAC invite proposals on “Carbon Capture and its Utilization” with the objective to develop energy efficient approaches for carbon capture from industrial and direct air emissions and its biological conversion to fuels, chemicals, materials and other novel products with the potential to drive the sustainable and carbon neutral circular economic opportunities. Further, the call also considers the potentially integrated solutions using existing and advanced high throughput technologies like biophotonics, electro-catalysis, and biorefineries with a focus on retrofitting existing technologies for carbon capture solutions for industrial setups.

Key features of the call:

The proposals are invited under two categories where first category i.e. “Discovery and application oriented Integrated Network research” focuses on proof-of-concept development and applied research to validate the feasibility of innovative ideas and technologies (TRL: 3-5). The proposals are invited to develop proof-of-concept and/or translation of leads to demonstrate biotechnological and bioprocess solutions for carbon capture and its utilization for product development. The proposals should aim to refine and validate technologies in controlled settings at laboratory and bench scale that may have the potential for further scaling up in real-time and factory setups. They should target bioprocess demonstrations up to 100 litres with globally competitive yields at the research and development stage. The following are the major areas of intervention under this category:

• Microbial Platforms for Carbon Capture and its Utilization
• Transformative Innovations for disruptive CCU concepts

The second category i.e. “Bridging the gaps for scale-up” focuses on industrial translation i.e. scale up of technologies with established PoC that have reached the early validation stage and are ready for late stage validation/scale-up (TRL: 5-7). Following are thrust areas under this category:

• Demonstration of existing bio-based processes and technologies for CCU for product development in a CO2 driven biorefinery approach
• Innovations for Deployable Biocatalytic Solutions for Point Source Emissions Mitigation

Eligibility

• Companies established under the Companies Act 2013 and Startups.
• The Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) incorporated under the Limited Liability Partnership Act,2008.
• Academic from various Institutions/Universities/Societies/ Trusts/NGOs/Foundations/ Voluntary Organizations, recognized as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO).

How to Apply

Last date for Submission of Proposals: 31th March 2025(midnight).

Proposals for the Scheme is required to be submitted online only. To submit a proposal online, please log on to the BIRAC website (www.birac.nic.in).

For more information please check the Link

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Tags Environment and Sustainability Innovations and Technology Research Others