ITRI Co-Supports C-CAMP’s Discovery to Innovation Accelerator (DIA)

March 2026

The Discovery to Innovation Accelerator (DIA) at C-CAMP, co-supported by ITRI, continues to demonstrate how catalytic funding can unlock real-world impact from Indian academic research. By supporting promising early-stage innovations, DIA helps bridge the gap between scientific discovery and practical application, enabling researchers to move beyond proof-of-concept toward technologies that can be adopted by industry and society.

DIA focuses on de-risking high-potential discoveries in critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and the environment. Through targeted funding, mentorship, and translational support, the programme enables researchers to validate technologies, conduct essential experiments, and engage with potential industry partners—helping move early laboratory findings toward industry-relevant and market-ready solutions.

To date, DIA has supported 11 academic innovations across India, reflecting the diversity and depth of the country’s research ecosystem. Notably, five technologies have already been licensed to industry partners in India and internationally. These include innovations addressing sepsis treatment, air disinfection, crop protection, and improvements in dairy productivity, highlighting the programme’s potential to generate solutions with meaningful societal and economic impact. Several additional technologies are currently progressing through pre-clinical development, technology validation, and industry engagement, bringing them closer to commercial deployment.

The DIA model plays a critical role in bridging the gap between publicly funded research and real-world application. By supporting the translational stages of innovation—often overlooked in conventional research funding—it strengthens India’s deep-science innovation pipeline and helps ensure that promising discoveries do not remain confined to laboratories.

Our support to C-CAMP’s DIA aligns closely with ITRI’s broader mission of strengthening India’s translational research ecosystem. By enabling programmes such as DIA, we aim to build the institutional and infrastructural bridges required for scientific discoveries to move effectively from labs to pilots, industry partnerships, and eventually large-scale deployment, ensuring that India’s strong research capabilities translate into tangible technological, industrial, and societal outcomes.