BIIS: Invitation for technology students to work on grassroots innovations

BIIS: Invitation for technology students to work on grassroots innovations

SRISTI in collaboration with BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India)  is organizing two three-week BIIS (Biotech Ignition Innovation School) for validating, value adding and product development around  grassroots innovations. The BIIS will also take up a few cases of developing solutions for grassroots applications for human, animals, and agricultural applications including herbal technologies, medical devices and microbial solutions. First BIIS will be held in Ahmedabad, December, 9-29, 2017. Currently, we are in the process of talks with the universities in the region for further collaboration in this event.

During BIIS, the selected students will be assigned individual projects in primarily three action-research areas drawing upon mainly Honey Bee Network Database :-

1.      Pharmacognosy /Phytochemistry - SRISTI’s Grassroots database contains many traditional knowledge practices as well contemporary innovations from across the country. These projects would involve validation/value addition to these practices. A few of these practices are presented here- http://www.sristi.org/cms/sristi-birac.

2.      Microbiology-SRISTI has a Microbial Bank containing 8000+ organisms (bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes) isolated from the soil samples collected in Shodh Yatras from different parts of the country (http://www.sristi.org/cms/shodhyatra). An extensive study of screening these isolated microbes for novelty and their potential human, animal, and agricultural benefits would be conducted.

3.      Medical devices- Value addition/product development of any of the open source projects listed on our summer school website (http://summerschool.sristi.org/ ) regarding medical devices for human and animal health care.

The abstracts along with the objective of the projects will be shared with the selected students one week before the start of the BIIS. The participants would be expected to develop a project proposal and associated work plan. These students would receive an expert feedback on their proposals from the reviewers on the first day of the workshop.  These students will also receive hands-on training in various techniques of microbiology, extraction procedures, and using various lab equipment (AAS, HPTLC, HPLC etc.) as per the need of the project in the first week of the event. The Faculty from the institutions of participants can also be associated with their projects as external supervisors. At least ten of the outstanding selected projects from BIIS would further receive a research grant of Rs.1 lac to take their projects into subsequent stages of product development.

Students are invited to participate in this initiative of SRISTI-BIRAC by sending their resumes at BIIS@sristi.org. The BIIS will cover boarding and lodging cost. Most of all, students would get an invaluable opportunity to interact with both national and international experts as well as grassroots practioners/innovators in their respective fields.

Last date to send your resumes for BIIS is 3rd November, 2017.

Kindly email at BIIS@sristi.org or call at 922 776 1140 for further queries.