ITRI is a nation-wide, collaborative philanthropic initiative to catalyse India's translational research ecosystem — augmenting the lab-to-market journey of academic innovations and positioning the country as a knowledge-driven economy.
Academic and research institutions undertake basic research. Discovery is driven by a technology push — enabled largely by public grants.
Technology development, prototype building and testing stall here — for lack of ownership, incentives, funding and infrastructure. This is the valley of death.
Commercialisation and market adoption, pulled forward by commercial capital — the outcomes that reach people, if the innovation survives the crossing.
ITRI builds the missing infrastructure across TRL 4–7 — so promising lab innovations complete the crossing from discovery to real-world impact.
India's Translational Research Initiative augments the translational research ecosystem so academic innovations can complete the journey from discovery to deployment. It works on four fronts.
Set up or augment translational research centres in premier research institutions across India.
Mobilise funding for translational research infrastructure from philanthropy, corporates, and government.
Strengthen industry-academic collaboration to fast-track the lab-to-market journey.
Catalyse a national ecosystem through capacity building, talent development, and shared resources.
Five headline targets anchor the mission. Grab and toss them — the physics is real.
Create or augment 50 Translational Research Centres over 5 years across India's 20 leading research institutes.
Unlock ~USD 1 billion via strategic capital — philanthropy, government, corporates, among others.
Develop public goods, knowledge products and assets to catalyse the translational research ecosystem.
Build talent and capability for research translation across India's research and academic community.
Demonstrate success through spin-outs, licensing and commercial-capital participation in the lab-to-market journey.
Translational Research Centres will help bridge the valley of death and increase industry-academia collaboration, leading to huge commercialisation of cutting-edge research. As more philanthropists participate, ITRI will play a truly impactful role for the Viksit Bharat vision.
I am encouraged by ITRI's vision and its potential to significantly advance translational research in India. Strengthening our national capacity to turn scientific breakthroughs into real-world solutions is crucial — initiatives like ITRI can build a vibrant ecosystem of innovation.
ITRI is the kind of catalytic effort India needs — bridging the lab-to-market gap, aligning science with national development goals, and building shared infrastructure to unlock our innovation potential. Bold, collaborative, and outcomes-driven.
Philanthropists, institutes, corporates and researchers each have a role in carrying research across the valley. Join ITRI's mission to 2047.