About the Scheme:
AICTE Productization Fellowship (APF) supports student groups in higher education to
develop innovative products or services that address societal challenges or meet market needs. It
provides financial aid for developing proof of concept, prototyping, and commercialization, covering
costs like raw materials, equipment, and testing. It also offers guidance on intellectual property,
business modelling, and technology transfer, aiming to foster innovation-driven economic growth in
line with the vision of “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.
Eligibility for the Award of Fellowship
The criteria for the award of fellowship are as follows:
Who Can Apply?
● Student teams from AICTE-approved Institutions/University Departments
● Full-time UG/PG/PhD students
● Graduated within last 2 years (UG/PG/PhD) – Must be from AICTE-approved institutions
● If the students are from different HEIs, bonafide certificate from respective institutes would
be required
Preference Given To
● Hackathon / Grand Challenge participants
● Winners of innovation events
● Students participated/ won National/International/state level Hackathons, Grand
Challenges, and similar innovation events.
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Eligibility for The Award of Fellowship
● The proposal shall be submitted in the online mode on AICTE portal:
https://yukti.mic.gov.in/login
● Proposal shall be assessed by an expert committee constituted by AICTE on merit basis. The
decision of the Competent Authority, AICTE, shall be final in this regard.
Project Guidelines
● Nominations should be from innovators from AICTE Approved Institutes, not by institutions.
● 1 project proposal per team will be awarded if selected.
● 3 nominations are allowed by a team.
● One team can have a maximum of 3 members (4 in exceptional cases). All Members can be
from different AICTE approved Institutes.
● Associated with institute as a student or alumni (Faculties cannot apply)
● Selected team will get Support for minimum 1 year
● Proof of Concept (PoC) Level (minimum) and NOT at IDEA Stage
Duration of Scheme/Fellowship
● The duration of the Programme/Project/Fellowship will be for a period of ONE Year and
Extendable for ONE More Year including stage-II of proposal.
● The innovative Product Development project can be incubated at the nearest incubation
center hosted in any of the AICTE Approved Institutes and can be continued there even after
the project duration is over.
Fellowship Highlights
Stage 1 Stage 2 Contingency Grant
Initial Funding for PoC to Fellowship will be continued Students/teams receive up
Prototype Development: during Stage-II for a to ₹50,000 per year (Stage-I
In the form of Fellowship, maximum period of one & II) for product
₹37,000/- per month for a year, for Product development.
maximum period of one Development, Testing, AICTE purchase rules don’t
year. Market Validation, and apply, and bills need not be
Commercialization submitted
after successful completion
of Prototype Development
in Stage-1.
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Roles & Responsibilities of the University/ Institute
1. Appoint a Nodal Officer to coordinate with AICTE and oversee all operational aspects of the
scheme.
2. Encourage student innovation and ensure timely updates of student/team details, including
Aadhaar-linked bank accounts, on the AICTE portal.
3. Track and report student progress for fellowship disbursement via DBT, and promptly update
any discontinuation or cancellation cases on the portal.
Discontinuation Cancellation
Fellowship will be discontinued if there's no Fellowship will be cancelled if selection is
progress within 3 months or if the quarterly revoked by AICTE, misconduct occurs, false
progress report is unsatisfactory. documents are submitted, or the
student/team is later found ineligible.
Terms & Conditions
1. Student teams cannot transfer fellowship to other teams during the fellowship tenure.
2. Teams must devote quality time to innovation work leading to product
development/services and cannot take other assignments.
3. Students cannot accept other financial assistance during the fellowship. If received, AICTE
must be informed immediately.
4. If a student joins employment, AICTE must be informed through the university/institute, and
the fellowship will be terminated.
5. Commercial exploitation and patent rights from innovation work will be jointly held with the
Institute and students.
6. Payments will be made through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to Aadhaar-seeded bank
accounts.
7. Fellowship duration cannot exceed 2 years and may be terminated at any time by AICTE.
8. First Stage Fellowship is for one year (extendable in exceptional cases), followed by Second
Stage (Productization Grant).
9. Number of Fellowships: Stage 1: 500 Teams, Stage 2: 150 Teams (Average 3 students per
team).
10. Reservations as per Government of India norms.
All AICTE APF rules and guidelines are applicable under this Scheme.
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I. Guidelines for AICTE Productization Fellowship (APF)
I. Guidelines for Innovators:
● Innovator (Student/Alumni) can submit their innovations from your respective YUKTI
portal (https://yukti.mic.gov.in/login)
● If you have not registered, please register
through (https://yukti.mic.gov.in/registration/new). During registration, please choose
your institute name correctly. (Only AICTE Approved Institutes are eligible for APF)
● If you have submitted your idea which is of TRL 1-3, then you need to upgrade your idea
to innovation/ Startup. After the conversion only you are eligible for this challenge.
Nomination Guidelines for Innovators:
● Login to YUKTI portal (https://yukti.mic.gov.in/login).
● After login, go to "Submit an Innovation/ Startup" menu and then choose "Add Innovation
Details".
● After pressing that choose "Innovation/Prototype" option and fill the form.
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● After submitting the form, you will be prompted with another set of information to fill the
"Mentor" and "Team Member" details.
● After submitting that you can see your submissions on the "Submit an Innovation/ Startup"
menu and choose "Innovation/Prototype Repository" submenu.
● In this page you can edit/delete your submissions.
● After submission, the "First stage of evaluation status" will be shown as "Pending". That means
your institute has not verified your submission.
● So kindly inform the person who is handling the IIC to assign verifiers for your submission.
● Once the submission is verified then the status will be changed to "Recommended"/ "Not
Recommended" as per the verifier's status.
● If it is recommended, you are eligible for the Guidelines for AICTE Productization Fellowship
(APF).
Note: Similarly, Innovators with startup details can update details in “Add Startup Details” and follow
the steps accordingly (details will be visible under “Business model/ Startup” once submitted)
How to upgrade the idea:
● Please go to "Submit an Idea/Innovation/ Startup" menu and then choose "Idea/ PoC
Repository".
● There your submitted ideas will be listed.
● The ideas which got "Recommended" by the verifier are eligible for the upgrade option.
● To upgrade, press "Upgrade" button under the "First stage of evaluation status" column.
● After pressing the upgrade button, extra information needed for the upgrade will be asked in
that form.
● Once you have submitted the form, that idea will be upgraded to innovation.
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● If you want to edit some information in the upgraded idea, please go to "Innovation/Prototype
Repository" submenu and your submissions will be listed.
**Note: Once you have upgraded, you have to ask your institute to verify your submission again.
How to apply for AICTE Productization Fellowship (APF)
Innovators who are verified by the institutes can apply for APF under in YUKTI portal itself:
1. Login to YUKTI portal and choose” Fellowship/Challenges”
2. Ongoing Fellowships/Challenges will be visible under “Ongoing”
3. Click on “Apply” button near against AICTE Productization Fellowship (APF) (Once applied
details can be viewed in “View” Button)
Note: Innovators will be able to see AICTE Approved institute details (eg: AICTE PID:) as given in
below image.
4. Once you click “Apply” you will see the innovations/ startup (verified) which can be
applied as shown below. (Only 3 innovations/ startups can be applied per team).
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5. Once applied you can see the applied fellowship/challenges in “Applied” dashboard
in the same page.
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II. Guidelines for institute:
Nomination Guidelines for Institute
● IIC institutes only need to verify the innovation/prototype/startup submitted by innovators.
Innovators can directly apply for AICTE Productization Fellowship (APF) under
“Fellowships/Challenges” in the YUKTI portal. No nomination from IIC is required.
● Only innovation/prototype/ startup level will be eligible for the AICTE Productization Fellowship
(APF).
● Innovations/prototypes/ startup that are submitted under YUKTI Repository and
recommended by verifiers are eligible.
**Important Note: If Institutions have not created a repository yet or not verified the submitted
innovations, following actions are needed.
i. For Registration:
● Institutes need to brief the innovators and share the YUKTI Portal link for registration.
● Institutions should not create a common user account and submit all the innovations in it.
● Each innovator should submit their innovations from their respective YUKTI portal only (Click
here)
● Innovators are encouraged to use their personal email ID for the account creation on the YUKTI
portal for the communication purpose.
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ii. Verification:
Once the innovators from your institute have submitted their innovation/prototype through their
respective YUKTI login, the institute must verify these registrations through the IIC
Portal... https://iic.mic.gov.in/institute/innovation-repository.
● Once the registration of the innovators is verified, institutes should encourage their innovators
to ensure they are submitting required details of their Innovation/prototype through their Yukti
portal.
● After submission of Innovation/Prototype details, the Institution needs to assign 3 verifiers.
Institute can add verifiers using the Add/Manage Verifier section under Innovation & Startup
Repository.
● Once the innovation has been verified and marked as recommended, then only the innovations
will be listed in the fellowship/challenges table.
● To know how to verify, please refer the manual (Click here) / refer the YUKTI Innovation
Repository document (Click here)
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