BIRAC's BIG grant: up to INR 50 lakh to prove a biotech idea works
A milestone-paid grant for young biotech companies with an idea and a lab bench, and as of October 2026 there is no call open to answer.
Summary
- BIG pays up to INR 50 lakh as grant-in-aid over as long as 18 months, to take a biotech idea from ideation to proof of concept. The guidelines set no equity, royalty or repayment terms.
- Only a company or LLP can apply. It must be incorporated within five years of the call's launch and be at least 51% owned by resident Indian citizens or Indian companies they own and control. Individuals are not eligible.
- Nothing is open. The 25th call ran from 1 to 30 November 2025, and as of 15 October 2026 BIRAC had announced no call for 2026.
A biotech founder in year one usually has a result from the bench and a theory of what it could become. That is too early for most investors and far too early for a bank. The Biotechnology Ignition Grant, BIG for short, was designed for exactly that stage.
BIRAC runs it. That is the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, a Government of India enterprise under the Department of Biotechnology. The first call opened in June 2012, and a PIB note in the Budget 2026-27 series, dated 2 February 2026, puts the number supported at nearly 1,000 innovators.
What does the BIG grant pay, and how is it released?
BIG is grant-in-aid of up to INR 50 lakh for a project lasting up to 18 months. It is released against milestones in three or four instalments, and the total can never pass INR 50 lakh.
How a BIG grant is paid out
| Instalment | Amount | When it is released |
|---|---|---|
| First | INR 20 lakh | When the grant agreement is signed |
| Second, and a third if the schedule has one | Up to INR 20 lakh each | When milestones show satisfactory progress and the project needs the funds |
| Final | Up to INR 5 lakh | After completion, as a reimbursement, once the final utilisation certificate, statement of expenditure and completion report are accepted |
With four instalments the bands could total INR 65 lakh. The payment schedule fixed at due diligence sets the actual amounts under the INR 50 lakh cap.
The final payment of up to INR 5 lakh is a reimbursement, so you spend that money first and recover it only after the closing papers are accepted. A company with no other cash needs a plan for that gap.
The grant can pay for recurring costs: manpower, consumables, incubation space and services, travel, IP costs, outsourcing, contingency and other running costs. Equipment is the one non-recurring head.
Alongside the cash, BIRAC and the BIG Partner running your grant offer mentoring: technical experts, IP and legal support, regulatory advice, trainings, business mentoring and introductions to investors. In a regulated field, ask for the regulatory advice early.
Who can apply under the current guidelines?
The applicant has to be a company or a limited liability partnership registered in India. Four more conditions sit on top of that.
- It was incorporated no more than five years before the call is launched. For the 25th call, that meant on or after 1 November 2020.
- At least 51% of its capital is beneficially owned by resident Indian citizens, or by Indian companies that resident Indian citizens ultimately own and control.
- It has its own working lab that is adequate for the project, or it is incubated. Any incubator counts, whether BIRAC supports it or not, and the BIG Partner verifies it.
- It names a Project Leader who is technically qualified and has at least basic undergraduate training in any discipline. That person holds shares in the company, presents to the selection panel and signs the agreement.
Individuals cannot apply. The Version 9 guidelines and the 25th call notice both speak only of companies and LLPs. The government's June 2026 startup schemes playbook still lists individual entrepreneurs for BIG, while linking to those same guidelines. Where the two disagree, the guidelines are the scheme's own rules.
One point is unclear in the guidelines themselves. The ownership test says resident Indian citizens, yet the definitions count NRIs as Indian citizens and exclude OCI and PIO cardholders. If NRIs hold a large stake in your company, ask BIRAC in writing before you apply.
The age test is measured on the day the call launches, not the day you apply, so the timing of the next call matters. As an illustration, a call launched on 1 January 2027 would move the cut-off to 1 January 2022. BIRAC has announced no such date. Every month without a call moves the age cut-off forward, and the oldest eligible companies fall out of reach.
What rules a company out, even with a strong idea?
Four exclusions can rule an application out.
- A startup can receive BIG only once, so a past grantee cannot apply again.
- If any promoter holding 20% or more of the shares is a co-promoter of another ineligible company, or a partner in another ineligible LLP, the applicant is out. The exception is where that other entity works outside biotech.
- A company in default on loan repayments to BIRAC is ineligible, and so are its promoters. BIRAC publishes the list of defaulters on its website.
- The same objectives and deliverables must not already have funding from another agency, and you sign an undertaking saying so.
Then come the limits on the project. BIG backs high-risk biotech ideas with a clear route to a commercial product. It does not fund basic or exploratory research, ideas with little novelty, or projects without a significant biotech component or sound science behind them.
Late-stage work is out too: systematic clinical trials, field trials, late validation and certification. BIG is not a research fellowship either, so it cannot pay for a PhD or other academic research.
A proposal has to sit in one of seven categories: vaccines; drugs and drug delivery; devices and diagnostics; biosimilars and stem cells; agriculture; industrial biotechnology with agriculture; and bioinformatics. BIRAC also welcomes work that joins biotech with engineering, AI, sensors, automation or robotics.
Check your against the co-promoter rule before you write a word of the proposal. An exclusion nobody read is one of the seven reasons government applications fail.
How does a BIG application move from call to first payment?
Each call is national and stays open for about a month. It names the BIG Partners for that round, which are incubators that screen applications, mentor applicants on their proposals and later run the grant for BIRAC.
The current guidelines list eight: C-CAMP Bengaluru, FITT at IIT Delhi, IKP Knowledge Park Hyderabad and KIIT BioNEST Bhubaneswar. Then Venture Center Pune, FIRST at IIT Kanpur, SINE at IIT Bombay and a-IDEA at NAARM, Hyderabad.
- Register on birac.nic.in as a BIG User and submit online. There is no other route, the portal shuts itself at the deadline, and a submitted proposal cannot be changed.
- The BIG Partner checks legal and technical eligibility: fit with the scheme and its stage, enough technical detail to review, and plagiarism.
- Three to five subject experts review each eligible proposal online, and the partner's review committee looks at the science. Before the next stage you show undertakings from advisers and core team members, an incubator's letter of intent, and proof of access to any unique facilities or samples.
- Shortlisted applicants get one-to-one pitching guidance from the partner. The Project Leader then presents in person to BIRAC's Technical Expert Panel, which makes the final selection.
- The partner runs financial, legal and technical due diligence, sometimes with a site visit, and fixes the milestones, budget and payment schedule. You have 30 to 45 days to accept, and after 45 days the offer lapses.
- The partner signs the grant agreement on BIRAC's behalf. BIRAC sends the money to the partner, which pays you in instalments as the milestones are met.
Reviewers work from indicative criteria in the guidelines. Technical viability carries the most weight, at 30 marks. Unmet need and value proposition carry 20 each, and team strength and business perspective 15 each. Write the proposal to that weighting, with the science argued first.
The guidelines also give an indicative timeline counted from the day the call closes. Eligibility checks finish around day 10, online review around day 40, and the panel sits around day 80. Results follow around day 100, and agreements and the first release come between days 145 and 160.
Plan on about five months between the deadline and any money. The seven stages of a government grant application show where each stage tends to slow down.
What does the grant ask of you once it is signed?
- Progress reports and certificates to the BIG Partner at set intervals, in its format, against the agreed milestones.
- BIRAC's own monitoring, including a face-to-face presentation near the end of the project.
- Meetings with at least two investors during the project, with their feedback written into your final report.
- Credit to BIRAC whenever you publish or present the project, its progress or its commercial results.
None of that costs . It does cost founder time, and every instalment after the first depends on progress against milestones, so a slipped milestone means a later payment. We have written about what a government grant really costs a company, and most of it applies here.
Take the two investor meetings seriously. BIG cannot be taken twice, so the next money has to come from somewhere else. Use those meetings to learn what an investor would need to see at month 18.
Is a BIG call open in October 2026?
No. The latest call, the 25th, opened on 1 November 2025 and closed at midnight on 30 November 2025. BIRAC's call page, last updated on 1 October 2026, lists no BIG call for 2026. As of 15 October 2026 there is nothing to apply to.
The guidelines promise a national call at least twice a year, typically on 1 January and 1 July. BIRAC held to two calls a year from 2013 to 2023. The 24th call closed in June 2024, and the 25th opened nearly 17 months later.
Every month without a call moves the age cut-off forward, and the oldest eligible companies fall out of reach.
The useful work now is preparation. Registration as a BIG User is open at all times, according to the 25th call notice. Line up the incubator letter, the adviser undertakings and your evidence of access to facilities, since those are asked for before the panel. Check your incorporation date against the age rule, then watch the call page on birac.nic.in.
When does BIG fit, and when does PRAYAS fit better?
BIG fits a biotech company or LLP at least 51% owned by resident Indian citizens and incorporated within five years of the call's launch. It suits proof-of-concept stage or earlier, with a lab or incubator to use. Its INR 50 lakh ceiling is higher than either PRAYAS ceiling.
NIDHI-PRAYAS, the Department of Science and Technology's prototype grant, is the other scheme built for this stage.
BIG and NIDHI-PRAYAS side by side, October 2026
| Question | Big (birac) | Nidhi-prayas (dst) |
|---|---|---|
| Who can apply | A company or LLP incorporated within five years of the call's launch, at least 51% owned by resident Indian citizens | An Indian individual aged 18 or over, or an early-stage startup |
| Most it pays | INR 50 lakh over up to 18 months | INR 20 lakh through a PRAYAS Centre, INR 40 lakh through an Advance PRAYAS Centre |
| What it funds | A biotech idea from ideation to proof of concept | A physical-product prototype |
| How you apply | Online to BIRAC during a national call | To a PRAYAS Centre, on that centre's own cycle |
| Open as of 15 October 2026 | No, and no 2026 call announced | Depends on the centre |
If you have not incorporated, PRAYAS is open to you and BIG is not. If your project is a drug, a vaccine or an industrial strain rather than a device, BIG is the closer fit on our reading. PRAYAS is written around physical prototypes.
A diagnostics device team may qualify for both, and then timing may decide, since a PRAYAS centre may be calling while BIG is shut. You cannot fund the same work twice, though. BIG asks for an undertaking that no other agency has funded the same objectives and deliverables.
If the work is already in clinical or field trials, BIG is the wrong scheme. The grants and schemes register lists the other central schemes, each with its rules and sources.
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply for BIG as an individual, before I incorporate?
No. The current guidelines admit only a company or an LLP registered in India. The government's June 2026 startup schemes playbook still mentions individual entrepreneurs. It conflicts with the Version 9 guidelines, which are the scheme's own rules. If you have not incorporated, NIDHI-PRAYAS is the nearer option.
Does BIRAC take equity or a royalty for a BIG grant?
The guidelines describe BIG as grant-in-aid and set no equity, royalty or repayment terms. Read the grant agreement the BIG Partner gives you before signing, because that is the document you will be held to.
When will the next BIG call open?
BIRAC had not announced one as of 15 October 2026. The guidelines say calls come at least twice a year, typically on 1 January and 1 July, but no call has kept to that pattern since 2023. Watch the call page on birac.nic.in and prepare in the meantime.
Do I have to be in a BIRAC-supported incubator?
No. You need either your own working lab, adequate for the project, or a place in an incubator. Any incubator counts, BIRAC-supported or not, and the BIG Partner verifies whichever you rely on.
General guidance, current as at October 2026. Scheme terms and call dates change, and the call notice and guidelines in force when you apply are what count. If you want a second read of your eligibility before the next call, our grants and schemes work starts there, and it is CS Manavi Arora's desk.
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