CDTI launches second call for proposals for grants to joint Spanish/Indian biotech projects

By Biocat

Spanish companies that want to carry out biotechnology R&D projects with Indian partners are eligible for grants from the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI), through the collaboration framework program signed some months ago between this body and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT). This is the second call for proposals for cooperative biotechnology projects between the two countries and the deadline is 15 July 2013.

India is now the fourth largest biotechnology market in the Asia-Pacific region, behind Japan, Australia and China, and makes up 2% of the global market in biotechnology. The Indian government has implemented numerous legislative changes to support and boost growth of the biotechnology industry, and revenue is expected to reach €10,000 millions in 2016, for an average yearly growth of 30%.

Funding for Spanish partners will be through CDTI lines of credit with the conditions applied to international projects and that for Indian partners with funds from the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

The project must be geared towards developing or significantly improving an innovative product, process or service with market perspectives in the biotechnology arena (health, industry, agrifood, biofuel, bioinformatics or biomedical engineering) and have at least one Spanish and one Indian partner:

• From India, partners may be companies or research bodies.
• From Spain, there must be at least one company that, if they choose, may also collaborate with other bodies.

The opportunities identified for Spanish companies in India, according to a report by ICEX, are:

• Vaccines and proteins to diagnose disease (India imports most complex vaccines).
• Marketing clinical/medical materials used in drug and diagnostic R&D (currently very underdeveloped in the country).
• Exporting complex or branded diagnostic or therapeutic drugs. There has been a general increase in diseases seen in developed countries, including cardiovascular, respiratory and oncological diseases as well as allergies. 
• Biosimilars market.

Spanish partners must present their proposals to the CDTI and Indian partners to the DBT, meeting the requirements and providing all documentation requested by each body. The projects selected will be announced before December 2013.

Rules and regulations for the call for proposals

Questions:
Spain: CDTI • Tel. +34 91 581 56 07 • isi@cdti.es
India: Ministry of Science and Technology (Dr. Shailja V. Gupta, director of the Department of Biotechnology) • Tel 2436 3748 • shailja@dbt.nic.in

• News on 1st call for proposals (5 October 2012)
• Workshop on 1st call for proposals (7 June 2012)