Indo-German Science & Technology Centre

What Indo-German Science & Technology Centre does

The Indo-German Science & Technology Centre (IGSTC) is a bilateral non-profit society jointly established by India's Department of Science & Technology (DST) and Germany's Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR, formerly BMBF). Registered under India's Societies Registration Act and headquartered in New Delhi with 15 employees, IGSTC operates as an R&D facilitation and grant-disbursement body whose core function is to catalyse collaborative research between Indian and German scientific institutions, academia, and industry. It is governed by a Governing Body with equal representation from both countries.

The organization runs a portfolio of grant programmes rather than commercial products. Core offerings include 2+2 Projects (joint industry-academia R&D requiring a minimum of one research institution and one industry partner from each country), bilateral Workshops, Industrial Fellowships (PIEF/PDIF exposing PhDs and postdocs to German industrial hosts such as Airbus, BASF, Fraunhofer institutes, and FAIR GmbH), PECFAR (paired early-career fellowships with short 1-2 month visits), WISER (women-in-STEM capacity building with lateral entry into ongoing projects), CONNECT Plus (INDOGFOE-linked mobility grants), and SING strategic networking grants. Applications are managed through a Salesforce-based unified online portal with annual calls.

IGSTC's revenue and budget are not publicly disclosed; the entity is funded jointly by the two national science ministries. Reported scale signals include 54 joint R&D projects, 590+ associated institutions and industries, 55 workshops supported, 6,300+ researchers and industry personnel engaged, and 800+ early-career researchers trained across 20+ thematic areas. Customer segments are researchers, academic institutions, and industries on both sides of the bilateral relationship, with women-in-STEM and early-career researchers explicitly designated as primary target personas.

Name

Indo-German Science & Technology Centre

Legal name

Indo-German Science & Technology Centre

Website

https://igstc.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

IGSTC is a bilateral non-profit society jointly funded by India's DST and Germany's BMFTR that facilitates Indo-German R&D collaboration through grants, fellowships, and workshops connecting academia, research institutions, and industry across both countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

International R&D Collaboration Funding

SIC

Services-Management Services (8741)

akta.pro primary industry

Infrastructure, Transport & Telecommunications IGOs (BPADAAAM)

Keywords

• Bilateral research collaboration
• Science technology funding
• Research fellowship programs
• Academic industry partnership
• Joint R&D grants

Headquarters

HQ city

New Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

IGSTC is a bilateral government-funded body that runs grant and fellowship programmes to facilitate Indo-German R&D networking across academia and industry. Its core offerings are 2+2 collaborative R&D projects (paired research institution + industry from each country), bilateral workshops, multiple fellowship tracks (PIEF, PDIF, PECFAR, WISER, SING), and the CONNECT Plus mobility grant, all administered through annual calls via an online application portal.

Product overview

IGSTC is a joint initiative by India's Department of Science & Technology and Germany's Federal Ministry of Research, organized as a funding and networking body registered under India's Societies Registration Act. It operates as a platform offering multiple R&D collaboration programs rather than a unified software product. The core offerings include 2+2 Projects (industry-academia partnerships), Workshops (bilateral knowledge exchanges), CONNECT PLUS (Frontiers of Engineering mobility grants), Industrial Fellowships (PIEF/PDIF for PhD and Post-Doc industrial exposure), PECFAR (paired early career fellowships), WISER (women researchers support), and SING (strategic networking grants). These programs serve to catalyze Indo-German innovation through research funding, capacity building, and networking without representing a traditional software product or SaaS platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 2+2 Projects R&D+I funding programme requiring participation of at least one research/academic institution and one industry from both India and Germany, supporting joint innovation projects in a 2+2 mode of partnership.
• Workshops Indo-German bilateral workshop platform enabling substantive interactions between scientists and researchers from academia and industry in India or Germany.
• CONNECT PLUS Mobility grant programme encouraging long-term collaboration among participants of Indo-German Frontiers of Engineering Symposia (INDOGFOE).
• Industrial Fellowships (PIEF/PDIF) Fellowship programme exposing PhD students and Post Docs to German industrial settings to promote applied research and technology development. Includes PhD Industrial Exposure Fellowships (PIEF) at €1500/month and Post Doctoral Industrial Fellowships (PDIF) at €2500/month, plus travel support up to €1000.
• PECFAR (Paired Early Career Fellowship in Applied Research) Fellowship encouraging two-way exchange of young researchers in pairs, providing opportunity to explore the Indo-German research landscape with short visits of 1-2 months. Provides €2300/month fellowship plus €1500 travel grant.
• WISER (Women In Science and Engineering Research) Scheme to build scientific capacity, retain and promote women researchers from India and Germany in STEM through collaborative proposal submissions in paired mode, with lateral entry support to ongoing projects.
• SING (Strategic Indo-German Network Grant) Programme facilitating strategic networking between Indian and German researchers and institutions.

Quantifiable outcome

• 54 joint R&D projects completed or ongoing
• +4 more outcomes

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of IndiacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-founding government partner from India. DST provides institutional backing and funding support for IGSTC's bilateral R&D programmes with Germany.
• Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), Government of GermanycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCo-founding government partner from Germany (also referred to as BMBF in some sources). Provides institutional backing and funding support for Indo-German collaborative R&D initiatives.
• FAIR GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. European research facility for antiproton and ion research in Darmstadt, Germany.
• AirbusminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. Major aerospace and defence company with German operations.
• BASFminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. World's largest chemical company with significant German operations.
• Fraunhofer IPAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Industrial Fellowship programme. Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation.
• Fraunhofer IWESminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Industrial Fellowship programme. Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems.
• Fraunhofer IGBminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Industrial Fellowship programme. Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology.
• Fraunhofer IDMT-HSAminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Industrial Fellowship programme. Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology.
• Cellasys GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German technology company.
• Lehmann-UMT GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German technology company.
• Vara AIminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German AI company.
• LIONEX GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German company.
• K|Lens GmbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German optics technology company.
• Janisch & Schulz mbHminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost industry option for Industrial Fellowship programme. German consulting company.
• FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Europe)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHost organization for Industrial Fellowship programme. International research facility in Darmstadt, Germany.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS): JSPS runs bilateral research and fellowship programmes with India through its JSPS India office, overlapping with IGSTC's mandate but funded by the Japanese government and operating globally.
• Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India: DST is the founding Indian parent of IGSTC and funds all domestic-facing grants; it is vastly larger and broader, but the relationship is essential to IGSTC's mandate and funding.
• Fraunhofer Society: Fraunhofer hosts IGSTC Industrial Fellows and is a principal applied-research counterpart in Germany. It is enormously larger than IGSTC, but the institutions overlap as R&D intermediation bodies linking academia, industry, and government.
• German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD): DAAD is a much larger German federal organisation that funds Indo-German academic exchange and scholarships; overlaps with IGSTC's fellowship agenda but is broader in geographic and disciplinary scope and substantially larger in budget.
• Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), Germany: BMFTR (formerly BMBF) is the founding German parent of IGSTC and provides all German-side funding; a government ministry rather than a peer in the usual sense, but functionally analogous as the upstream counterpart for bilateral research cooperation.
• Alexander von Humboldt Foundation: The Humboldt Foundation is the German federal body funding international research cooperation and senior fellowships — comparable to IGSTC's fellowship programmes but operating globally rather than bilaterally.

Direct peers

• Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF): IUSSTF operates the same bilateral government-to-government S&T collaboration model with a different partner country (U.S.), running 2+2-equivalent joint project calls, fellowships, and virtual networks — directly comparable to IGSTC's mandate and structure.
• Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme (ISJRP): A bilateral Indian-Swiss programme financing joint research projects and mobility between Indian and Swiss researchers — smaller in scale but structurally analogous to IGSTC.
• Indo-UK Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI): UKIERI is a bilateral UK-India education and research collaboration programme jointly funded by the two governments; comparable in mandate, governance style, and target outcomes to IGSTC.
• Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA): CEFIPRA is the nearest peer to IGSTC: a bilateral government-funded Indo-French society registered under the Indian Societies Act that supports joint R&D projects, fellowships, and workshops between Indian and French researchers under a near-identical operational model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/login
• Facebookfacebook.com/IGSTC.IndoGerman
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/igstc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Indo-German Science & Technology Centre