Sparsh is the Social Innovation programme for Products: Affordable & Relevant to Societal Health. The programme is initiated by BIRAC under the aegis of Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Government of India.
The programme aims at promoting the development of innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. The scheme tackles major social issues and offer new ideas for widespread change. The scheme aims to invest in ideas and innovations that improve health care of all Indians and encourage affordable product development in the social sector.
The scheme intends to create a pool of social innovators in the biotech arena who will identify the specific needs and gaps in healthcare. The social innovators will be provided financial and technical support for developing market-based solutions that have potential to bring cost effective health care breakthroughs to vulnerable populations in particular.
Sparsh objectives
- Identify and provide support to cutting edge innovations towards affordable product development that can bring significant social impact and address challenges of inclusive growth.
- Provide support in form of impact funding of biotech product innovations (with social goals) that can be scaled.
- Create and foster a pool of social innovators in the field of biotech and provide a platform to share the best practices, understand intricacies of business models in social innovation and network.
Call for Proposals :
- BIRAC announces Call for Proposals for Establishment of SPARSH Centres (Last Date: 15th August, 2019)
- BIRAC announces 8th Call for Proposals under SPARSH (Last Date: 11th March 2019)
- BIRAC announces 7th Call for Proposals under SPARSH on 1.) Soil & Plant Health 2.) Human Health (Last Date - 17th November, 2018)
- BIRAC announces 6th Call for Proposals under SPARSH on WASTE to VALUE (Last Date - 30th September, 2017)
- BIRAC Announces Fifth Call for SPARSH - Innovative Diagnostic tools for Soil and Plant Health (Last Date - 15th March, 2017)
- BIRAC Announces Fourth Call for SPARSH - Ageing and Health (Click here to download Concpt Note)
- BIRAC Announces Third Call for SPARSH - Innovative Technology Solutions for Waste to Value Click here to download Concept Note)
- BIRAC Announces Second Call for SPARSH - Healthy Mother Healthy Child
- BIRAC Announces First Call