Updated on: Monday, August 27, 2012
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will set up the country's first CSIR Innovation Complex by 2014 at Baruipur near here, costing Rs 100 crore, to boost commercialisation of innovations, a top official has said.
CSIR Director General and Secretary, DSIR, Samir K Brahmachari said, "The innovation complex will come up in Baruipur on a 23 acre campus close to Kolkata at an expenditure of around Rs 100 crore."
"This is the first of the three proposed innovation complexes in the country to be operational in the next two years," Brahmachari said.
Subsequently, another two innovation complexes approved would come up in Mumbai and Chennai, he added. Central Glass & Ceramic Research Institute (CGCRI) Director Indranil Manna said, "A center is also under development at a five-acre plot in Salt Lake city (in Kolkata) to supplement the activities of the proposed Baruipur complex." He is overlooking the innovation complex project here.
The Salt Lake centre will be operational soon and the industry will not have to wait till the one at Baruipur was ready to begin projects, he said.
Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata, scientist involved in the complex project, Chitra Mondal said currently land-filling was going on and the process to engage an architect was underway.
An innovation complex will capitalise on scientific activities in the region by partnering with industries to commercialise innovations in labs in eastern region.
"The idea is to develop technology that gets translated into a product. To do this, we will offer infrastructure to carry out the pilot project before scaling up to commercial level," Manna said.
CSIR has begun sensitising the industry about the collaboration opportunity in product development in the domains of biology and biomedicine, manufacturing, materials, machines and devices, clean energy and value-added products.
"CSIR labs will take stake or royalty or both depending on the project and knowledge we bring on the table," Manna said.
Five other CSIR laboratories - Indian Institute of Chemical Biology-Kolkata; Central Mechanical and Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur; National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur; Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research, Dhanbad, and North East Institute of Science and Technology - will be involved at the innovation complexes in Kolkata.