Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has launched a School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship to create a world-class ecosystem to establish deep-tech start-ups.

The school will offer a minor stream in entrepreneurship, an MS (Entrepreneurship) degree, and also establish novel programmes contributing to translational research besides a PhD programme and a unique ‘Entrepreneur-in-Residence’ (EIR) cohort to support returning professionals who want to pursue entrepreneurship as a career. These include practice-led degrees at the undergraduate and Master's levels, as well as an industry-defined ‘Innovation Doctorate’.

The school also aims to create IIT Madras-specific funding mechanisms at the initiation and scale-up stages for start-ups. It will also run ‘IP clinics’ to help students understand the notion of IP filing and quickly convert their innovations into IP-backed products with support from IIT-M’s IPM Cell.

The school will be headed by Prof Prabhu Rajagopal, a Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Awardee, serial faculty-entrepreneur and a distinguished faculty of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Madras. Having nurtured student innovation through his leadership of both the maker-space Centre for Innovation (CFI) and the pre-Incubator Nirmaan, besides several successful start-ups, Prof. Prabhu Rajagopal brings extensive experience and vision to the School, IIT-M said in a statement.

IIT-M is already home to India’s largest ‘deep-tech’ startup ecosystem, with over 475 startups valued more than ₹50,000 crore ($ 6 Billion) under the aegis of IITM Incubation Cell, together with several sector-specific incubators. These start-ups have cumulatively created more than 11,000 jobs, filed over 700 patents, and have attracted ₹12,000 crore in investments, the institute claims.

“As we progress after having achieved 1.2 patents a day and exceeded 100 start-ups in the last financial year, now, it is time to institutionalise our innovation and entrepreneurship efforts. We have a large ’Innovation & Entrepreneurship’ stack that spans the e-Cell, Centre for Innovation (CFI) and Nirmaan pre-incubator to the Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and IIT Madras Incubation Cell,” Prof V. Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said.

“We have already introduced in the second year of the B.Tech programme, a course on entrepreneurship and system building. Now, we will also have a minor. The PhD programme is very interesting. This is going to be another USP of IIT Madras,” he added.