US-India Endowment Board

OBJECTIVES

To select and support through a grants program financially promising joint US-India entrepreneurial initiatives. These initiatives can originate from government, academic, non-governmental or commercial entities, and any combination thereof provided they focus on applied R&D, incorporate a business plan and proof of commercial concept, and have significant sustainable commercial potential.

PRIORITY AREAS

Healthy individual: Affordable biomedical devices, diagnostic / preventive / curative measures, or food and nutrition products to improve health. (Drug development and clinical trials are not eligible activities in this category).
Empowering citizens: Reducing the digital/technology divide. This could include amongst others, information and communication technologies with societal impact in areas such as water, agriculture, financial inclusion, and education.

ELIGIBILITY

Proposals must include a minimum of one partner from each country. Bi-national teams applying to the Endowment will work together to commercialize technologies for societal impact.
The Bi-national teams can include:

i) Start-up companies; or
ii)Incorporated companies; or
iii) Non-incorporated entities; or
iv)Individuals or consortia from academia, government laboratories, non-government R&D institutions

Each bi-national team must include at the time of application an entrepreneurial (small-scale as opposed to large-scale) entity that will receive a portion of the grant and take the technology to the market. If partners are planning to form a new venture to commercialize the technology, the proposal should include planned incorporation date and the amount of grants requested for the new entity.
Relationships between the U.S. and Indian partners must be clearly defined, including ownership of intellectual property rights for the technology proposed to be developed and commercialized.
The proposed technology must have potential towards commercialization within 2-3 years

FUNDING

Grants of up to Rs. 2.50 crores or approximately $450,000 (subject to prevailing exchange rate).Proposals outside this range may be considered under exceptional circumstances at the discretion of the US-India Science & Technology Endowment Board (hereafter referred to as 'Board').
Normally there would be a reasonable balance in the grant for Indian and U.S. partners.
Grants will be released in a phased manner based on successful completion of milestones (which may include requirements to raise/ invest funding to match Endowment grant at some stage).
All milestones for the grants will be specified at the time of awarding the grant