Kanpur, March 5 (IANS): IIT Kanpur Research and Technology Park (brand name, Technopark@iitk) has achieved an important landmark, completing five years of fostering academia-industry collaboration for developing cutting-edge innovation and knowledge-based technologies.

Technopark@iitk has leveraged the core competencies and strengths of IIT Kanpur to emerge as a leading research and development hub across sectors.

“Technopark@iitk completes five years on Tuesday and it is a significant milestone for us. In a short span of time, we have achieved considerable success in getting research focussed companies to Kanpur including some big names like Laurus Labs and forge meaningful engagements with the academic community to accelerate the pace of innovation and drive tangible socio-economic impact,” said Prof. S Ganesh, Director, IIT Kanpur, in an official release on Tuesday.

Started in March 2019 as a non-profit Section 8 company, Technopark@iitk is a pioneering initiative by IIT Kanpur aimed at fostering Industry-IIT Kanpur R&D collaborations by inviting research-driven industries to work closely with the academic fraternity and co-develop cutting-edge technologies in line with the national priorities.

The facility, located within the IIT Kanpur campus, is spread over two and a half lakh square feet space (2.5 lakh sq. ft.) with modern amenities like recreation facilities, cafeteria, meeting and conference rooms and training rooms.

With over 65,000 sq. ft. of space already taken, this new facility boasts of the presence of several leading companies like Laurus Labs Ltd., Meril Diagnostics, TVM Signalling and Transportation Systems, Geo Climate Risk Solutions, Q-Line Biotech to name a few.

Laurus Labs Ltd., a Hyderabad-based leading pharma and biotechnology company, has licensed the technology from IIT Kanpur in the gene therapy domain and is setting up its cGMP vector manufacturing facility within Technopark@iitk.

Prof. Amarendra Kumar Singh, Professor-in-charge, Technopark@iitk, said that the purpose of Technopark@iitk is to promote interactions between industry and IIT Kanpur in a holistic manner and speed up the transition of products and technologies from lab scale to industry.

“The companies can leverage the entire massive research ecosystem of IIT Kanpur for their R&D goals and growth. This includes hardcore R&D projects with faculty, internships with IITK students on real world industry challenges, access to IITK R&D infrastructure, joint patents and publications, licensing and commercialising patented technologies,” he said.

The new Technopark@iitk facility will soon be the centre of defence testing facilities under DTIS scheme of the Ministry of Defence in the areas of UAV and communications.

For IIT Kanpur and Technopark@iitk, the Phase 1 building launch is an exciting chapter in times to come to bridge the industry-academia gap for nurturing technologies and innovation.

It reinforces their commitment to the national objective of building a self-reliant and developed India, as envisioned by ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ and ‘Viksit Bharat’ initiatives.?