Anusandhan National Research Foundation

What Anusandhan National Research Foundation does

Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is a statutory body of the Government of India, established by the ANRF Act of 2023, functioning as the apex national funding agency for research, development, and innovation. It administers the ₹1 lakh crore (~$12B) Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund, over 20 grant programs, and a portfolio of MAHA Missions spanning water, drones, MedTech, electric vehicles, and critical raw materials, co-designed with respective line ministries. Its operational backbone includes an Electronic Project Proposal Management System for end-to-end proposal handling and an ANUMAPI dashboard for national-level monitoring of research output and patents.

ANRF's business model is non-commercial: it disburses government appropriations and pooled partner capital to Indian universities, IITs, IISERs, national labs, and faculty researchers, rather than selling products or services. Capital is delivered directly through ANRF grant programs and indirectly via second-level fund managers (Technology Development Board and BIRAC, each seeded with ₹2,000 crore). It also co-funds flagship assets such as the Wadhwani-IISc Innovation Centre (₹1,400+ crore committed). Its technology stack centers on standardized proposal and review workflows, with growing investments in sovereign AI compute (NVIDIA partnership) and frontier-model research collaboration (Google DeepMind partnership) under its AI for Science & Engineering Mission.

The institution serves India's academic and scientific research community, with a hub-and-spoke PAIR (Pan-India Academic and Research) model that links top-tier institutions with regional universities, alongside ANRF Centres of Excellence and a network of programmatic collaborations with global technology partners and philanthropic funders such as the Wadhwani Foundation and the Gates Foundation.

Name

Anusandhan National Research Foundation

Legal name

Anusandhan National Research Foundation

Website

https://anrfonline.in

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is India's apex statutory research funding body, administering the ₹1 lakh crore RDI Fund, 20+ grant programs, and MAHA Missions to universities, IITs, national labs, and faculty researchers across India.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Government Research Funding

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700)

akta.pro primary industry

Research & Science Grantmaking Foundations (BPAGAKAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Scholarship & Fellowship Foundations and Trusts (EDADAHAC), Field-of-Study & Discipline-Specific Funding (EDAIAOAD), Research Administration & Compliance (Sponsored Programs, IRB/REB) (EDADAKAH)

Keywords

• Government research funding
• Scientific research grants
• Innovation funding programs
• Academic research fellowships
• Deep-tech research commercialization

Headquarters

HQ city

New Delhi

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Others, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Government Research Funding: ANRF operates as a statutory body of the Government of India providing high-level strategic direction and funding for research, innovation, and entrepreneurship across natural sciences, engineering, health, agriculture, and scientific interfaces of humanities and social sciences.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is India's apex government research funding body that disburses grants, fellowships, and mission-mode program funding to universities, research institutions, and individual researchers across natural sciences, engineering, health, agriculture, and humanities. It operates the Electronic Project Proposal Management System (anrfonline.in) as the operational portal and oversees the ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) Fund through Technology Development Board and BIRAC.

Product overview

Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is India's apex research funding body established by Act of Parliament, providing high-level strategic direction for research and innovation. ANRF operates as a platform-plus-programs model with an Electronic Project Proposal Management System as the core operational portal, supporting over 20 distinct grant programs including MAHA Water, MAHA Drones, Leapfrog Demonstrators, Catalytic Partnership, ATRI, Critical Raw Materials Research, COE-STIIA, AI for Science & Engineering, and MedTech Mission. These programs range from individual fellowships (Ramanujan, J.C. Bose, National Post Doctoral) to large-scale institutional funding (up to Rs 100 crore), targeting domains including water management, drone technology, medical devices, AI for science, advanced materials, and critical minerals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MAHA (Mission for Advancement in High-impact Areas): Mission-mode research programs focusing on strategic sectors including Water, Drones, MedTech, Critical Raw Materials, Leapfrog Demonstrators, and EV Mission.
• PAIR (Partnerships for Accelerated Innovation and Research)
• ATRI (ANRF Translational Research and Innovation)
• PM ECRG (Prime Minister Early Career Research Grant)
• Ramanujan Fellowship
• J.C. Bose Grant
• N-PDF (National Post Doctoral Fellowship)
• RDI Fund (Research, Development and Innovation Special Purpose Fund)

Products and services

• ANRF MAHA Water Program Joint initiative with Ministry of Jal Shakti supporting priority-centric, solution-based research in the water sector through multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional projects with industrial partnerships for water resource management, quality, and sustainability.
• ANRF MAHA Drones Program

Quantifiable outcome

• ₹1 lakh crore (~$12 billion) deep-tech fund created for India's innovation ecosystem
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability11 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Ministry of Jal Shakti (MoJS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026Joint initiative for MAHA Water Program to accelerate innovation in water sector through R&D-based technological solutions. Ministry signed MoU with ISRO for satellite-based water resource monitoring across 24 priority areas. Launched Rs 200-crore ANRF-MoJS MAHA Water Mission.
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026MoU signed for satellite technology applications for water resource management across 24 research areas including reservoir monitoring, groundwater assessment, river-flow analysis, and flood forecasting.
• BHARAT-WIN PortalcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2026Open call for startups and MSMEs through BHARAT-WIN Portal under MAHA Water program and water research initiatives, part of national workshop on water R&D bringing together government, industry, and academia.
• NVIDIAflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 February 2026Collaboration with India's $1 billion+ IndiaAI Mission through ANRF to build sovereign AI infrastructure, partnering with cloud providers for AI computing systems featuring tens of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs. ANRF venture capital partnerships to fund AI startups and develop India-specific AI models.
• Google DeepMindflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 February 2026Partnerships with ANRF for AI for Science tools, Atal Tinkering Labs for educational AI serving 10,000 schools and 11 million students, $30 million Google.org Impact Challenge: AI for Science, and collaborations in agriculture and energy sectors.
• Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration for MAHA Drones program (medical payload carriers) and MAHA MedTech Mission for indigenous medical technology development. ICMR contributes milestone-based funding of Rs 5-50 crore per project targeting diagnostics, implants, surgical devices, and national health priorities.
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for AI for Science and Engineering (AI-SE) mission providing scalable GPU clusters through GPU-as-a-Service model. MeitY supports AI infrastructure for scientific discovery across domains including climate science, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing.
• Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration for AI for Weather and Climate Modeling under Mission Mausum, including AI emulators for physics parameterization, multimodal rainfall nowcasting, and climate forecasting.
• Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for AI for Engineering Design and Accelerated Materials Development targeting defence applications including novel materials design, digital twins for naval systems, and AI-enabled maritime system maintenance.
• Department of Biotechnology (DBT)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership for AI for Bio and Life Sciences under AI-SE mission covering biomanufacturing, AI-assisted strain selection, enzyme design, drug discovery, protein and mRNA biologics, and cell & gene therapies.
• Ministry of Mines (National Critical Mineral Mission)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaboration for MAHA Critical Raw Materials Research Program in consultation with National Critical Mineral Mission. Nine Centers of Excellence recognized by Ministry of Mines as hubs for CRM research with ₹210 crore funding over 3 years.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• European Research Council (ERC): ERC funds investigator-driven frontier research across Europe with grants for established and early-career researchers. Comparable to ANRF in grant programs like Advanced Research Grants, PM ECRG, and Ramanujan Fellowships.
• National Science Foundation (NSF): NSF is the United States' apex government research funding body, distributing billions in grants across science and engineering disciplines. Directly comparable to ANRF in mandate, structure, and grant administration role.
• German Research Foundation (DFG): DFG is Germany's central research funding organization supporting basic research across all disciplines. Comparable to ANRF in role as primary national grantmaker with peer-review process and fellowship programs.
• National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC): NSFC is China's primary government funding body for basic and applied research across natural sciences. Directly comparable to ANRF in scale, mandate, and role as national research grantmaker.
• Australian Research Council (ARC): ARC is Australia's national funding body for research and research training across all disciplines. Comparable to ANRF in administering Discovery and Linkage grants with academic and industry partnerships.
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): SNSF is Switzerland's national research funding body supporting basic and applied science across all disciplines. Comparable to ANRF in mandate, peer-review process, and fellowship administration.
• UK Research and Innovation (UKRI): UKRI is the United Kingdom's national funding agency for research and innovation, distributing government grants across academic disciplines. Comparable to ANRF as a unified national research funding body with multi-program structure.
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS): JSPS is Japan's core funding body for scientific research with extensive fellowship programs for domestic and international researchers. Comparable to ANRF in fellowship offerings and international research collaboration support.

Others

• Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB): SERB is ANRF's predecessor body, now operating as a constituent unit under ANRF after the ANRF Act 2023. Directly comparable as the prior iteration of India's research funding infrastructure, with continued operation of legacy schemes.
• Department of Science and Technology (DST), India: DST is ANRF's parent ministry under the Government of India, coordinating science and technology policy. Comparable as the broader governmental context within which ANRF operates and is funded.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/anrfindia
• Facebookfacebook.com/anrfindia
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/anrf-pmecrg
• Instagraminstagram.com/anrfindia

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments1 record

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Frequently asked questions about Anusandhan National Research Foundation