Special features of the organization
Entrepreneurship Development Center, the technology business incubator hosted by the CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, has bagged the National Award for Technology Business Incubation for 2015. The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, New Delhi announced the award. Dr.Premnath Venugopalan received the award from the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, on 11 May 2016 at VigyanBhawan, Delhi on the occasion of National Technology Day.This award recognizes the contribution of Venture Center (Venture Center is the trademark of Entrepreneurship Development Center) for promoting and nurturing scientific entrepreneurship in the Country and more specifically in the Pune region. Venture Center is today home to 40+ scientific ventures. Venture Center has created and made accessible a rich (perhaps richest in India) eco-system for knowledge-intensive start-ups for Pune and Western India that includes infrastructure, advise, funding, information, networks, events etc. Venture Center is open to all and not a captive incubator of NCL.With 40+ resident start-ups, Venture Center is the largest science-business (IP-rich or inventive enterprises) incubator in the Country and hence a trend setter. Most of these enterprises are driven by scientists and engineers. Women entrepreneurs have founded more than 30% of the startups incubated at Venture Center. Entrepreneurs associated with Venture Center have won several national and international competitive awards and funds. Venture Center also has the distinction of helping create several spin-off companies from publicly funded research labs in India.Venture Center has mentored more that 40 innovators and start-ups to secure the Biotech Ignition Grant of BIRAC and hence helped create momentum in the Pune region for entrepreneurship.Venture Center is the only functional incubator in the CSIR network of labs across the country and thereby serves as a role model and trend setter for CSIR, the largest R&D organization in the country.Venture Center is a key BIG partner of BIRAC and helps operate the BIG scheme a key grant program in the innovation eco-system in India.Venture Center operates a very productive IP Facilitation Center. The IPFC in Pune is the most productive IPFC of MoMSME in the country. Venture Center ran 140 events in FY 2015-16 and created a buzz about entrepreneurship, IP, innovation etc in the Pune region.Venture Center has set up several free online resources via its website which are used extensively,such as the funding database, the incubator database, the biomed regulations guidebook, Pune resources for Bio-Entrepreneurs etc Via its FRACTAL program, Venture Center has advised several incubators in getting started.. Currently, Venture Center is closely mentoring Savli Bioincubator, GSBTM in Gujarat.Venture Center & its incubatees have been recognised at various media platforms viz Business Line (INCUBATION ZONE -This article was published on April 18, 2016) , Financial Express (http://www.financialexpress.com/article/pharma/market-pharma/incubating-right/104903/), Your Story (http://yourstory.com/2015/05/venture-centre-ncl-pune-science-business-incubator/ , ), BioSpectrum, Economic Times (http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-11-26/news/68582109_1_national-chemical-laboratory-drug-companies-bhatnagar-prize , ), Times of India, Sakal Times etc.
