Dr. Vidhya’s Incubation Centre, established during the academic year 2018–19, serves as a vibrant platform that encourages students to bring forward innovative ideas and entrepreneurial thinking. The centre has gained formal recognition from the Ministry of MSME, Government of Tamil Nadu, and is registered as the KIT – V INSPIRE Foundation.

KIT – V INSPIRE FOUNDATION is a not-for-profit Section 8 company functioning as a pre-incubation centre dedicated to promoting an innovation and research ecosystem. It focuses on nurturing research-driven ideas and early-stage start-ups through structured mentoring, capacity-building programs, prototyping support, and strong industry linkages. The foundation actively supports students, faculty members, and aspiring entrepreneurs in transforming ideas into viable products and scalable technologies, thereby contributing meaningfully to regional and national innovation ecosystems.

The company focuses on enabling idea development, fostering research-based innovation, and creating an environment conducive to developing new technologies and intellectual property. It promotes entrepreneurship through workshops, hackathons, capacity-building initiatives, and innovation challenges. The society also collaborates with academic institutions, government bodies, and industry partners to support impactful innovations, particularly in sectors of national and regional importance

Functioning in alignment with its not-for-profit mandate, the company works toward strengthening the innovation and startup ecosystem and contributing to the overall technological and economic development of the region

Objects of the Company

• To establish and operate a high-quality pre-incubation and incubation facility for nurturing innovative ideas and early-stage startups through mentoring, business planning support, access to resources, seed funding, training, and industry linkages.
• To create and sustain a support ecosystem for innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs by providing mentoring, co-working spaces, laboratory and prototyping facilities, technical and regulatory guidance, and networking opportunities with investors and industry experts.
• To focus on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship among students, faculty, and young professionals, encouraging them to translate ideas into viable products, processes, or services.
• To organize innovation challenges, hackathons, workshops, boot camps, and entrepreneurship development programs aimed at enhancing entrepreneurial and technical skills among innovators.
• To promote research-based innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and development of intellectual property leading to commercial and societal impact.
• To give preference to startups and innovators working in sectors of national and regional importance, including agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, energy, environment, and smart technologies.
• To collaborate with academic institutions, research organizations, government bodies, and industries to promote innovation, knowledge sharing, and capacity building.
• To support and undertake any activity that contributes to the promotion of innovation, entrepreneurship, and startup culture in the country, consistent with the objectives of a not-for-profit organization.

Objectives

• It aims to provide fund for each department with the concern of HoD’s approval. The best project will be selected by panel member in the corresponding department. Selected finalist will receive fund for their product.
• The project expo will be conducted by the Incubation Centre and best project from each department will be selected based on the new innovative ideas.
• It supports faculty seed grant to improve product development, patent and publication

Roles of Incubation Centre

• Providing the Office and operational space in the campus based on the availability.
• Permission to use laboratories and equipment
• Advice on Intellectual Property protection and commercial transactions
• Business and financial structuring advice
• Mentoring and networking support
• Advice on fund raising
• Monitoring and reporting

Procedure for Faculty Seed Grant

• A seed fund of one lakh rupees will be provided, and all faculty members are eligible to submit project proposals.
• The project proposal should include either one Principal Investigator (PI) and a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) or a single Principal Investigator (PI).
• The project team may be interdisciplinary, and each team is allowed to submit only one project proposal.
• The sanctioned project must be completed within one year, with two SCI journal papers published related to the project. An additional six-month extension will be granted for the publication of journal papers, if needed.
• Upon completion, the entire project must be submitted to the institution.
• Quarterly reviews will be conducted to assess the progress of the work.

Procedure for Students Seed Grant:

• Maximum duration of the project is one year. At any circumstances duration will not be extended.
• The supervisor or HoD of the department has to submit the utilization certificate with all necessary documents.
• After successful completion of the project all the students of the project will get the completion certificate.
• Students convert their project into product and finally it will be filed into a patent with institution’s name.
• Every week the students should submit their updating of the project through their project guide and HoD to the Incubation centre.
• Once the project is selected and fund is sanctioned by KIT, that project/idea should not be carried out in other place at any circumstances.
• The selection of the project is based on the report from selection Committee.
• Committee’s decision is final.