ISRO establish Space Tech Incubation Center to promote space star-ups

New Delhi, March 20: Indian Space Research Organisation inaugurated three ‘Space Technology Incubation Center (S-TIC) to promote research and development as well as space start-ups in the country. ISRO Chairman, Secretary of DOS Dr. K. Sivan inaugurated these S-TIC at the National Institute of Technologies in three different cities Nagpur, Bhopal, and Rourkela through the Video conference. This Centre will enable start-ups to build applications and products that could be used in the country’s future space missions.

According to the statement released by the ISRO, the S-TIC at VNIT Nagpur will be the focal center for the western region of Space Technology Incubation activities including the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and UTs of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu. Similarly, S-TIC at MANIT Bhopal will be a key center for the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile. the S-TIC at NIT, Rourkela will cover the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, and UT of Andaman & Nicobar.

During the occasion, Sivan also encouraged the students to explore their entrepreneurship skills in the space domain. He also emphasised that the S-TIC concept is conceived with one selected major academic institute taking the lead role in a particular region and providing opportunities for final year graduate, postgraduate, and research scholars as future budding entrepreneurs. Projects of practical relevance linked to the ongoing missions or future missions of ISRO will be made available to the students at STIC. The research outcome of these students will be translated into a Proof-of-Concept or prototype through industries within their region.

Apart from him, Sri R. Umamaheswaran, Scientific Secretary, ISRO ISRO emphasised the need for an inter-disciplinary approach and close teamwork among various disciplines of Science and Technology for accomplishing the objectives of S-TIC.

Also read: Uplifting R&D, India-US launches Artificial Intelligence Initiative

He further stated that the setting up of the S-TICs, one each at VNIT Nagpur, MANIT Bhopal, and NIT Rourkela, will be a major boost up for space-related activities in these regions and wished that these S-TIC will produce many space entrepreneurs and space leaders, who will potentially be able to mark the human footprints in deep space. He further asserted that the saplings, we are planting in form of S-TIC at these prestigious Institutes have a great potential to grow as a big tree, firmly establishing its roots in a deep depth of knowledge in the domain of Space Science and Technology.

For those S-TIC, ISRO has signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (for the Western region), Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal (for Central region), and National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (for Eastern Region) for setting up the Space Technology Incubation Centre in their campus.