The intellectual property generated from the Project shall be the joint property of the Industry and DBT (in case of single industry) or whoever (Industries or DBT) contributed for generation of the intellectual property in case of collaborative project shall own the intellectual property.
DBT is funding only for projects through this scheme. However, responsibility of protecting the intellectual property generated from the Project shall be on industries. Normally, the agreement between the industry and DBT specifies that the intellectual property generated should be utilized by the industry in one year from the project or patent grant other wise the DBT shall have alright to license the property to third party.
In the initial stage of funding, the project should not be published or presented till it is being reviewed by project Monitoring Committee (PMC). Both the parties i.e. industries and DBT are bound to confidentiality clause in the funding agreement. No parties to the agreement shall transfer the right in intellectual property to third party without the consent of DBT.
Department of Biotechnology coordinates the scheme through establishment of an agency called SBIRI Management Agency (SMA). Currently, Department of Biotechnology has appointed M/s Biotech Consortium India Ltd. (BCIL) as SMA. Every project shall be monitored periodically by project Monitoring Committee (PMC) constituted by the department. The funding through the scheme is done in two phases depending on the investment in the project by companies. The funds will be given under the scheme to the participating industry and collaborating partners in installments, the first one on signing of the Agreement and the subsequent installments on satisfactory progress of the project as determined by the Apex Committee of SBIRI (ACS).
The funding structure has two phases as provided in SBIRI website.
Under the phase I:
- If the actual project cost is upto Rs. 25 lakhs, 80% of the project cost will be available as a government grant.
- If the actual project cost is between Rs. 25 lakhs and Rs. 100 lakhs, 50% of the project cost will be available as government grant subject to a minimum of Rs. 20 lakhs and maximum of Rs. 50 lakhs.
- If the project cost is beyond Rs. 100 lakhs, in addition to the Govt. grant of Rs. 50 lakhs, the unit will be eligible for interest free loan upto 50% of the amount (subject to a limit of Rs. 50 lakhs as loan) by which the total project cost exceeds Rs. 100 lakhs.
Under phase II:
The scheme provides soft loans upto Rs. 10 crores according to the requirement of the project. There shall be minimal interest if the funding is more then 100 lakhs. The partner in the public institution at this stage will get the R&D support as grant.
For further terms and conditions please visit the following link http://sbiri.nic.in/HTML/tc.html.
Repayment of the loan
Repayment of the loan by the industry to the DBT in phase I of the scheme shall be in ten annual installments and recovery shall commence six months after the scheduled completion of the project. In case of delay in repayment simple interest around 12% per annum will be applied. If there occurs two successive defaults in repayment then or if the in the event of foreclosure of the project the outstanding amount shall have to be cleared immediately. The amount may be recovered even through land revenue.
Repayment of the loan by the industry to the DBT in phase II of the scheme shall also be in ten annual installments and recovery shall commence six months after the scheduled completion of the project. However, there shall be a Simple interest @ 1 % or 2 % (as applicable ) per annum shall be payable on the loan amount up to Rs. 100.00 lakhs or for loan in excess of Rs. 100.00 lakhs from the date of release of funds to the Industry.
The project implementation period shall be the moratorium period and during this period, there shall be no liability for repayment of installments of loan and interest. However, entire interest accrued up to the repayment including interest accrued in moratorium period shall have to be repaid in two equal yearly installments.
Following are few documents and forms that have to be submitted:
- Budget details of the project as agreed by both the parties
- Complete Project document with agreed timelines
- Schedule of repayment of loan and interest- maintain the repayment record as annexure 3
- Utilization Certificate for Industries and Government Contribution
- Statement of Expenditure
In order to keep the private organizations in biotech sector well informed about the SBIRI scheme like information or development about the scheme, discussion meetings, etc, the department is in the process of preparing general MAILING LIST and has called for private organizations engaged in modern biotech activities like research and development, production and commercialization, etc are to provide their contact details.
The above information may be sent through post addressed to The Executive Director, Biotech Consortium India Limited, 5th floor Anuvrat Bhawan, 210 Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi-110 002 (E. mail: bcildelhi@vsnl.com Or bcil@biotech.co.in).
For further information click www.dbtindia.nic.in/sbiri.
