The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms takes a turn at education and upskilling through a new initiative, the Life Science Entrepreneurship Development Programme or Life-ED, aimed at promoting life sciences research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in the Indian academic community, beginning with Bengaluru as the first region of interest.

It is well established across the globe that the key to societal progress is creating breakthrough technologies. The way to accelerate this creation is by equipping the country’s scientific community with expertise and access to modern research tools and teaching a strong innovation-driven mindset to transform bench discoveries into solutions. These and entrepreneurial know-how can be vital skill sets in promoting indigenous innovation and science-led entrepreneurship in India. The current academic structure lacks this three-pronged approach.

The Life-ED aims to address this gap through a structured program to engage academic institutions with a scholarly community of students, teachers, researchers, and educational innovators.

Dr. Taslimarif Saiyed, director-CEO, C-CAMP, said the program aims to resolve the lack of a structured and integrated approach to promoting life sciences entrepreneurship by strengthening current skill sets and honing problem-solving talent.

In his keynote address, Dr L S Sashidhara, director of NCBS, underscored the importance of the National Education Policy, noting that the world is changing quickly and becoming less predictable. Institutions must develop programs that hone analytical and critical thinking skills to solve societal problems.

G S Krishnan, president of ABLE India, said the industry needs to participate in education. Global solutions cannot solve local problems. It is important to foster entrepreneurship by establishing close interactions between industry and academia to solve local issues