IMPacting Research INnovation and Technology (IMPRINT)

‘IMPRINT India’, a pan-IIT and IISc joint initiative to develop a roadmap for research to solve major engineering and technology challenges in ten technology domains relevant to India was launched on November 5, 2015. Adopting engineering and technology as a vehicle to address the social needs, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now renamed as Ministry of Education) has formulated a catalytic scheme for Impacting Research, Innovation and Technology (IMPRINT) as a pan-India initiative.

About IMPRINT

IMPRINT is the first of its kind MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) supported pan-IIT + IISc joint initiative to address the major science and engineering challenges that India must address and champion to enable, empower and embolden the nation for inclusive growth and self-reliance. IMPRINT provides the overarching vision that guides research into areas that are predominantly socially relevant. This novel initiative with a twofold mandate is aimed at:

• Developing new engineering education policy
• Creating a road map to pursue engineering challenges

This MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) initiative has been coordinated by IISc and 16 IITs. 25 Ministries signed an MoU for promoting research under IMPRINT. The initiative now enjoys the funding support of over 25 ministries, departments and councils of the Central Government for identified projects. This number is growing further and in doing so laying a firm long-term foundation for the initiative.

The programme builds around the great research talent and highly equipped and promising infrastructure of the Indian Institutes of Technologies (IITs) and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). With an aim of achieving inclusion, the programme has currently also encompassed the Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) and in the future is poised to cover all the academic and research institutions of the country.

Participating Institutes

• IISc Bengaluru
• IIT (BHU) Varanasi
• IIT Bhubaneswar
• IIT Delhi
• IIT Gandhinagar
• IIT Guwahati
• IIT Hyderabad
• IIT Indore
• IIT Jodhpur
• IIT Kanpur
• IIT Kharagpur
• IIT Madras
• IIT Mandi
• IIT Mumbai
• IIT Patna
• IIT Roorkee
• IIT Ropar

IMPRINT Domains

• Advanced Materials
• Energy
• Environmental Science and Climate Change
• Healthcare
• Information and Communication Technology
• Manufacturing
• Nanotechnology Hardware
• Security and Defence
• Sustainable Habitat
• Water Resources and River Systems

To access the IMPRINT Knowledge Portal Project List click here.

IMPRINT-2

IMPRINT-India initiative was both novel and unique. Despite the unprecedented interest, widespread enthusiasm and unique scope and utility of the initiative, a need was felt to sharpen the focus, streamline the process of review and allotment, and showcase the fruits of innovation pursued and achieved through IMPRINT in the public domain by creating a 'knowledge portal'. Thus, IMPRINT has now graduated into the next edition, IMPRINT-2, with a wider scope, simpler guideline for participation and better synergy among investigators, partners and collaborators. It is also realised and appreciated that IMPRINT-2 should be undertaken in a more inclusive manner by expanding the catchment of implementing institutions, by adopting a more demand-driven strategy of solution development and by incorporating the specific externalities of the states of India so as to make end-user translation and technology adoption easier. The Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) in the Department of Science & Technology (DST) is proposed to be made the nodal agency for implementing the IMPRINT-2.

Scope of IMPRINT-2

• Develop products/processes and viable technologies for addressing the identified challenges in the different domains.
• Formulate and develop focused translational projects against identified technology thrust areas by various stakeholder ministries.
• Evolve new technology transfer models for enabling technology diffusion to industry and stakeholders.
• Continuously monitor and refine the challenges and gaps in the various technology domains and map the same against the needs and strengths of the stakeholder ministries vis-Ã -vis academic and R&D institutions.
• Align the programmers and projects with the needs of various industry sectors and the States of India in order to achieve end-user translation.
• Facilitate building capability and competence in identified technology thrust areas in the various HEIs and universities in order to plug the demand-supply gap of human resources in specific areas of need.
• The faculty members and researchers in all Government of India funded Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), especially IITs/NITs/IISERs/IIITs/CUs, who are pursuing research in engineering and technology are eligible to submit proposals in IMPRINT-2 as the Principal Investigator (PI).
• IMPRINT-2 shall maintain an appropriate inventory of stakeholder needs and map the same against various products/technologies/knowledgebase likely to be developed under the initiative.

Important Features of IMPRINT-2

• Principal objective is to translate knowledge into viable technology
• About 425 projects with up to Rs. 2 crore budget will be supported
• MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) and DST are equal partners to steer the scheme
• IMPRINT-2 is open to all MHRD (now renamed as Ministry of Education) funded HEIs / CFTIs
• 27 ministries of GoI remain partners of IMPRINT-2
• Projects with industry support will be preferred

Source: IMPRINT, IMPRINT-2