The Indian Institute of Technology Madras, situated in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, is a distinguished public technical university and is acknowledged as one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence in the nation. Significantly, IIT Madras has achieved unparalleled success in Indian Higher Education by securing its No. 1 ranking in the ‘Overall’ category for the Fifth Consecutive Year and in the ‘Engineering’ category for the Eighth Consecutive Year. This recognition has been consistently upheld since the inception of the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.
The Sustainability Venture Studio (SVS) is an initiative of the School of Sustainability at IIT Madras. The SVS is a dynamic platform that facilitates the transformation of eco-innovative ideas into viable products and startup businesses. This initiative is significant not only for promoting sustainability and circularity but also for fostering entrepreneurial ventures within and beyond the academic landscape.
The SVS comprises two programs, all tailored to transform ideas into products at scale (TRL 1-6). These programs share a common goal: to uncover eco-innovations and circular solutions, streamlining the lab-to-market transition.
Ideas to Impact Challenge (i2I) – A Pan-India contest for college students and researchers. The contest aims to transform sustainable and eco-innovative ideas into workable lab-scale prototypes. The top 25 teams will receive training and mentoring support, along with funding support of up to INR 50,000. The top 5 teams at the end of the 6-month program will receive a Grand prize of INR 100,000 and a direct entry to the next cohort of the Carbon Zero Challenge. This contest was launched in October 2023 and is supported by the Wipro Foundation. The theme for the inaugural edition is Circularity in Resource Conservation for the domains – Air, Energy, Material/Waste, Soil, and Water.
Carbon Zero Challenge (CZC) – CZC is a Pan-India contest for anyone with a validated proof of concept and looking to scale to pilot and commercialise it. The aim is to transform lab-scale sustainable and eco-innovative prototypes into thriving startups. The top 25 teams will receive advanced training and mentoring support, along with funding support of up to INR 500,000. The top 5 winners will receive a startup seed grant of up to INR 1,000,000. CZC was launched in 2017 and has completed 3 editions. The 4th cohort was soft-launched in October 2023. The first edition (2017-2018) was conducted with support from the U.S. Consulate Chennai, and Polaris (a Virtusa company). The second edition (2018-2019) was fully supported by Virtusa. The third edition of the contest was relaunched in August 2022 after the 2020 pandemic. CZC 3.0 edition was supported by Thales Group and Aquamap-Centre for water management. Thales Group will be supporting the 4th edition as well. The theme for CZC 4.0 is Circularity in Resource Conservation. It focuses on circularity and innovative solutions for managing major resources in the domains – air, Energy, Material/Waste, Soil, and Water.