NIDHI EIR

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Here is a chance to pursue your entrepreneurial aspirations! Upto INR 30,000 fellowship for 12 months & Bespoke Mentoring.

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About NIDHI - EIR program

Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EIR) Program is one of the programs introduced under the NIDHI Scheme by DST, GoI to inspire the best talents to be entrepreneurs, to minimize the risk involved in pursuing start-ups, and to partially set off their opportunity costs of high paying jobs. The NIDHI-EIR program provides tremendous opportunities for innovative entrepreneurs to expand their networks and get critical feedback on their ventures in order to promote their entrepreneurial career goals and aspirations.

Fellowship

Fellowship upto ₹ 30,000/ month for 12 months

Who Can Apply

Budding Entrepreneurs with Innovative Technology Business Ideas (General, SC and ST Category)

Program Benefits

Fellowship

Minimum ₹ 10000 to maximum ₹ 30000 per month for 12 months.

Mentorship 101

Tailored mentoring in areas like IP, Legal, Regulatory, Business Development.

Co-Working Space

Access to co-working space, common infras, and administrative support.

Lab Access

Access the digital fabrication lab to turn your ideas into prototypes.

Further Assistance

Specific functional and domain knowledge sessions to build better

Scale Up

Opportunity to pitch for follow-on funding under other KIIT-TBI's programs.

Timeline

Call Opens

Generally for a window of 1 month.

Shortlisting

Declaring the Shortlisted Candidates.

Selection

Presentation to Selection Committee.

Results

Final List of Candidates Selected.

Our Fellows

Frequently Asked Questions

The NIDHI-EIR Program would provide subsistence grant to an aspiring or budding entrepreneur of considerable potential for pursuing a promising technology business idea.

The Programme aims:

  • To encourage graduating student to take to entrepreneurship by providing support as a fellowship.
  • To provide a prestigious forum for deserving and budding entrepreneurs to pursue their ventures without any additional risks involved in technology based businesses.
  • To create, nurture and strengthen a pipeline of entrepreneurs for incubators
  • To make pursuing entrepreneurship related to a technology business idea more attractive among options available career options.
  • To enable creation of new start-ups by entrepreneurs and significant progress towards raising funding or investment.

NIDHI-EIR support recipient should fulfil all the following requirements

  • Should be an Indian Citizen
  • Should have completed minimum 4 years of formal full time undergraduate/post graduate education towards one or more degree programme.
  • Should be first generation innovative entrepreneur committed to explore a business idea and has no prior source of income.
  • Should have clear intention of perusing the business idea and setting up a start up to carry it forward and should demonstrate his/her ability to build a scalable technology business startup.
  • Is not a promoter or significant (>10%) share holder / beneficiary of another company at the time of applying for and receiving the grant approval.
  • Is expected to pursue the entrepreneurial aspirations full time. NIDHI-EIR cannot be concurrent with any other remuneration or fellowship.
  • Should be willing to be registered for the pre-incubation or incubation program at the Programme Executing Partner – TBI for the entire duration of NIDHI-EIR support.
  • Preference shall be given for
    1. Technology business ideas with larger technology uncertainties and/ or long gestation periods,
    2. Technology business ideas leveraging technology or IP from publicly funded research or academic organizations,
    3. Technology business ideas with considerable potential for social impact.
  • Entrepreneurs pursuing business ideas with no or marginal technology innovation or those with very short journey (i.e less than 6 months) to commercialization are discouraged to apply.
  • Formal business plan for the idea they intend to pursue
  • Business presentation including the investment proposal
  • Proof of citizenship (Aadhaar)
  • Passport size photo
  • SC/ST Certificate (if applicable)
  • After the receipt of proposals, Programme Executing Partner – TBI will check the eligibility of each applicant.
  • Applicants who are eligible will then be scrutinised by the expert committee at each Programme Executing Partner – TBI based on certain qualifying criteria’s to select the final recipients of NIDHI-EIR support.