Research and Business Development (R&BD) Nation-wide Application Call

Background

Research and Business Development (R&BD) is one of the major functional areas to plan, support, and develop the research projects and business strategy of the Nepal Technology Innovation Center (NTIC). Its strategy can lead to innovation and increased productivity and boost business competitive advantages. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, and increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships and making strategic business decisions.

KU-IRDP/NTIC aims to serve as a research and business development platform of Nepal through relevant operational/support programs. The business development platform will incorporate all aspects for growing a business from a concept phase to a fully operational stage. The core of the project is to promote the integrated development of the community through the strengthening of R&BD capabilities. The support from R&BD may range from prototype/ process/ technique development and improvement, production and packaging support, and commercialization support.

In the first phase, R&BD had announced an application call within Kathmandu University in the following sectors:

  1. Agriculture and Rural Development

  2. Alternative and Renewable Energy

  3. Health Related Livelihood

  4. Other Sectors Contributing to Integrated Rural Development

The selected projects will serve as flagship projects of KU-IRDP/NTIC.

In the next phase, R&BD has announced the nationwide open calls within the above -mentioned three thematic areas. It is open to all Nepalese citizens (for e.g.business people, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, and other innovation centers). Those selected projects will be supported in terms of propagation of the existing technologies or innovative products/processes and commercialization for development of rural communities. Similarly, R&BD will support other functional areas as per their need during the project duration.

Objectives

  • To support R&BD in the three identified thematic areas (Agriculture, Renewable Energy and Health-related livelihood) and other possible areas through centrally run laboratories and rural research and development programs.

  • To serve as a research and development platform of Nepal through relevant operational/support programs.

  • To examine the feasibility of projects from the initial stage, conduct research in stages.

  • Establish and adjust the direction at each stage to enable commercialization. (As the main scope will be research and development activities that can directly contribute to commercial purposes and commercialization of the private sector to differentiate it from the various research institutes that carry out the basic research field.)

Total Supporting Fund and Period of Program within KU

Category

Details

Total Support Fund

NRs 30,000,000

Support Period

2022.01∼ 2023.04 (Within 16 months)

Maximum Support Fund

Up to NRs. 5,000,000 per project

Eligibility for the Application 

The following eligibility criteria needed to be fulfilled for the application:

For Principal Investigator/s (PIs):

  1. Must be a Nepalese citizen

  2. PI may be any individual or from any institution or from any consortium based in Nepal.

  3. The project team is preferred to be organized into a consortium of PI and partner organizations including university, industry, NGO, private firm etc.

For Partner Institution

    1. Individual partner must be a Nepalese citizen.

    2. A partner institution must be based in Nepal

Eligible Types of Projects

  • The eligible projects can be of the following types:

  • The project that deals with any one of the above-mentioned thematic areas

  • The technology development project that links all the mentioned thematic areas and is cross cutting areas will be given priority.

Application Processes

  • The period of application and place of submission are as follows;

Category

Period and Method

Call for application

Announcement in the Kathmandu University website and KU-IRDP/NTIC website. November 21 to December 21.

virtual press meet will also be organized for the announcement of the call on 21 November 2021.

Announcement of the call will be published on the national newspaper on November 21 2021

Briefing Session will also be organized to clear the queries of the applicant on December 10, 2021

Application form and relevant templates

Available at the website of Kathmandu University and KU-IRDP/NTIC (for download) November 25 to December 21, 2021

Submission of project proposal and required documents

Drop off hard copy at KU-IRDP/NTIC office at KU or Send electronic copy via email at ntic@ku.edu.np on

November 25 to December 21, 2021

Please Click Here for all the relevant documents related to R&BD application call

  1. Nationwide Application Call Notice
  2. R&BD Operational Plan for Nationwide Call
  3. Guidelines for R & BD Accounting and  Budgeting for Nationwide Call 
  4. Management and Operation Guidelines for Nationwide Call
  5. Project Proposal Form for Nationwide Call
  6. Participating Researcher profile form for Nationwide Call
  7. Project Participation Agreement Form for Nationwide Call