Atal Incubation Centres (AICs)

Builds world-class business incubators at universities, institutions, and corporates, giving startups infrastructure, mentoring, and seed capital connections.

Host institutions apply to establish an AIC; startups benefit by being incubated at one.

Host institution: grant-in-aid up to ₹10 crore over 5 years. Startup: infrastructure, sectoral mentoring, industry/investor connections.

Startups find and apply to a relevant AIC (72+ operational); institutions respond to AIM's call for proposals.

A founder looking for a well-resourced, sector-relevant incubation environment.

DAE also hosts AICs at four of its research units — BARC Mumbai, IGCAR Kalpakkam, RRCAT Indore, and IPR Gandhinagar — specifically to license DAE-originated nuclear-adjacent technologies (materials science, instrumentation, radiation applications) to startups and industry. These operate under the same AIC structure and funding as any other AIC; the DAE-specific value is access to genuinely unique nuclear-sector R&D rather than different terms. See https://dae.gov.in/dae-technology-transfer-activities/ for details.