SAHAJ

Scientific Infrastructure Access for Harnessing Academia University Research Joint Collaboration (DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure)

The primary goal of DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure is to create a “National Service Facility/ Research Resource/Platform” and to provide access to resources that could not be provided by any single researcher's laboratory or scientific department but required for data acquisition, analysis and providing the proof of concept to cater the needs of a larger research community. The Department, through DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure, provides support to establish such new or upgrade existing research resources/service facilities and platforms in Indian Institutions/Universities engaged in cutting edge research in frontier areas of Life sciences/Biotechnology.

Objectives: The major objectives of DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure are:

• Quantitative and qualitative expansion of existing or establishing of new research infrastructure
• Providing access to world class and state of the art facilities
• Technology driven capacity building
• Human resource development through training
• Improvement of Institutional/University Biotech infrastructure for education and quality research leading to societal impact
• Encouraging the long term operational sustainability
• Fostering academic and industry cooperation
• Fostering partnerships to maximize opportunities
• Encourage global competitiveness
• Promote translational research leading to products testing, validation and development
• Provide services for food and environmental biosafety assessment, diagnostic and detection services related to trade, medicine and agriculture and environment

SAHAJ portal (https://dbtepromis.nic.in/frminstrumentusability.aspx)

To ensure access to cutting edge research resources and infrastructure to researchers throughout India, DBT has launched the SAHAJ Portal where scientific equipment / infrastructure of each DBT Autonomous Institute and DBT supported Infrastructure programmes in other Institutions / Universities are enlisted. Details regarding the instruments, user charges, contact details of resource persons, terms and conditions are also provided.

In order to facilitate students /researchers who do not have any central government funding/ fellowship or research grant, a special Infrastructure Access Grant, capped at Rs 10 lakhs per year shall be provided to the host institute to allow these students/ researchers to access the infrastructure. The Director of the Institute hosting the facility shall review such applications received, on a competitive basis, and the decision reached will be conveyed in a time bound manner not exceeding 4 weeks. Presently there are more than 450+ different equipment / service facilities enlisted on the SAHAJ portal) with the charges for academia and industry, location details and contact details of the concerned instrument / service facility in charge. Further, in order to ensure better user-friendliness of the SAHAJ portal, the Department has ensured that the list of equipment / service facilities can be further sorted State-wise or instrument-wise, making it easier for any user to locate his / her desired equipment / service facility while also providing the options for other alternatives. The response to SAHAJ portal has been immense and can be witnessed from the fact that 4.60 lakhs users have accessed the equipment/services listed under the SAHAJ portal since its inception alongwith the generation of Rs 54.00 crores revenue; by this revenue model facilities become self-sustainable while ensuring that user charges for these facilities are uniform and reasonable to ensure “Science for All”.

Expected outcome: The main emphasis is to foster the long-term sustainability of these cutting edge and investment intensive research infrastructures through providing services to the scientific/industrial community on a practical revenue model.

Success Stories

• During the last 5 years, the Department has established 19 new National Facilities across the country.
• Few major facilities established under SAHAJ are High Resolution Mass Spectrometry based Proteomics Research and Training Facility at IIT Bombay, Advanced Research Platform for Crop Sciences, at NIPGR, Delhi, Access to Macromolecular Crystallography Beamlines at ESRF, France, at RCB, Faridabad, creation of a National Genomics Core facility, at NIBMG- Kalyani, CDFD- Hyderabad, University of Allahabad and Flow cytometry and imaging facility at the Institute of Life Sciences, ILS, Bhubaneswar.
• During the last 5 years, the Department has supported 15 Universities (central/state/private) – Punjab University, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, AIIMS ,New Delhi; SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram to name a few.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Who can apply ?

Any public and deemed institution/university or private UGC recognized institution/University (including deemed universities) certified for doing Research and Development activities by Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).
Private universities must be recognized by UGC & DSIR for research and should have contributed significantly in the growth of biological science during past 10 years.

2. When is the call for DBT-SAHAJ announced?

The call for DBT-SAHAJ is announced annually and is advertised on the DBT website.

3. What is the duration of support ?

Project will be supported for a maximum period of Five years and subsequent year grants will be released only after submission of the necessary documents. In General, No extension will be provided beyond Five years, though, in exceptional circumstances with proper justification; project duration may be extended as follows:

• Maximum of one year within the approved budget of the project with salary component.
• Maximum of two years, including (i) above, for projects showing exceptionally outstanding performance with additional budget. During extension period, ONLY the manpower, consumables and AMC will considered for financial support

4. What is the Funding Mechanism and revenue model and is revenue model mandatory?

• Funding under Scientific Infrastructure Access for Harnessing Academia University Research Joint Collaboration (DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure) Programme is upto Rs. 20.00 Cr. for a period of 5 years. The recurring Budget may include sub-heads namely: Manpower, Overhead, Travel, Consumables, Contingency, AMC Charges, Books & Periodicals and Laboratory training & workshops
• University/Institution proposals would be considered for co- funding; wherein the University/Institution will have to show proof of matching contribution under NR Head proposed on a 3:1 ratio basis ( i . e . 75% Contribution from Department of Biotechnology and 25% Contribution from grantee University/Institution).
• Civil work will not be supported under this scheme.
• For establishing/upgrading a shared facility in which the Equipment/ Facility costing Rs.50 lakh or above, only will be supported. Any instrument/equipment below this limit may be acquired through competitive research grant system of any national funding agency.

A revenue model is mandatory requirement for consideration of project. A suitable revenue model has to be submitted by the applicant especially for Service Facilities or research resources/platforms where providing a service is proposed. The revenue model may be decided on case to case basis; however, the model must envisage the sustainability of the proposed facility at least after three years of operation.

5. What is “Usage under DBT-SAHAJ portal”?

• The Facility supported under DBT-SAHAJ Infrastructure programme will be a National Facility and make available its high end equipment and infrastructure to Research Institutes, Universities, colleges and start- ups/ entrepreneurs. Their websites reflect Infrastructure facility usage forms with well- defined usage charges terms and conditions.
• The website of the Institute shall host a well-defined link for the facility enumerating the details of user charges, terms & conditions, mode of application and timelines for the decision on the applications.
• The user charges shall be separately defined for deferent categories viz. Research Institutes, Universities (central, state, private), colleges and start-up/ Entrepreneurs.
• The Infrastructure access form will be online and all booking will be confirmed within 02 weeks.
• Preferably at least one third of the time shall be allocated to the external users after a clear mapping has been done of how much time is being dedicated for the host users.
• For Students/Researcher who does not have any government or other funding fellowship or research grant a special infrastructure Access Grant capped at Rs. 10.00 Lakh /year will be made available to the host institute to allow these students/researcher to access the infrastructure on competitive basis. The infrastructure access grant cost shall be met under the contingent grant sanctioned by the DBT. In case the requirement considered exceeds Rs. 10.00 Lakhs/year, this shall be reimbursed by the Department on actual basis, however, not exceeding additional Rs. 10.00 lakhs/year, for the project duration.
• The request for utilizing the facility shall be screened in a time bound manner by the Director of the host institute and decision conveyed within 4 weeks.
• An undertaking for compliance of above points may be submitted by the Head of the Institute while submitting their proposal for funding.

6. What are the criteria for evaluation of a new proposal?

The proposals shall be generated/ invited by the Department as per national priorities and emerging requirements. Applications shall be evaluated based on the following criteria by the Department:

• National priorities
• Emerging Areas,
• Users (number, shared and scale),
• Lack of access and maximizing open access
• Non-Duplication and integration of facilities
• Research quality and probable impact,
• External leveraging and co-investment,
• Operational cost,
• Need and cost of maintenance,
• Technical services. Based on internal assessment, if required an onsite assessment will be carried out for appraising on Scientific, technical, financial needs and expertise available at host institute/ university. Such site visit may be undertaken either before or after the project has been evaluated by the “Task Force on Research Resources, Service Facilities and Platforms”. In case the site visit is performed after the proposals are considered by the respective Task Force, the recommendations of the site visit committee will be considered Final for funding the proposal. However, in special cases the decision may be reviewed by the Task Force.

7. How is a new proposal processed?

DBT-SAHAJ is a highly competitive grant and the Department is fully committed to ensure complete transparency during the process of consideration and short listing of proposals.

• Upon receipt of a new proposal, the same will be reviewed for completeness by the Internal Screening, Incomplete applications and those which do not fulfill eligibility criteria will not be considered further.
• Applications that are complete and responsive will be further evaluated for scientific and technical merit by a high-powered Expert Committee / Task Force constituted by the Department.
• Decision of the Expert Committee/Task Force shall be communicated to the PI along with the feedback from the Expert Committee/reviewer(s), and instructions for submitting the final proposal shall be forwarded to the applicant.
• Project appraisal process will consist of: screening, submission of final proposal and reviewing, evaluation and approval by Expert Committee/Task Force.
• Decision of the Expert Committee/Task Force/ Committee constituted for on- site assessment will be final and cannot be disputed. However, Department of Biotechnology reserves the right to support a proposal after accommodating further revision(s) or completion of any documentary requirements or on the basis of sectoral/national priority for a particular financial year.

For discussion or evaluation of proposals, members of committee must declare a NO conflict of interest. The potential Conflict of Interest will be discussed and rated as high, medium or low and the member(s) will be either asked to leave the meeting for the duration of Committee’s deliberations regarding the relevant proposal, or to refrain from any discussion and participation in decisions related to the proposal(s).

Contacts Concerned Officer for more Information