Wadhwani Foundation and Gates Foundation Partner to Accelerate Research-Driven Innovation in India
New Delhi: In a major step toward strengthening India’s research and innovation ecosystem, the Wadhwani Foundation and the Gates Foundation have entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate research-led innovation and entrepreneurship across the country.
The two organizations recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to expand the National Innovation Network (NIN), aimed at transforming cutting-edge research into scalable solutions with significant social impact.
The collaboration will serve as a national expansion of the Wadhwani Innovation Network (WIN) and will focus on sectors directly linked to India’s development priorities, including healthcare, nutrition, biotechnology, genomics, medtech, and other emerging technologies.
The initiative seeks to move research beyond laboratories and convert scientific discoveries into practical, real-world applications that can benefit society at scale.
Under the partnership, the Gates Foundation will support five National Innovation Network Centers of Excellence (CoEs) over the next five years, with two centers scheduled to be launched this year.
These centers will help researchers and innovators advance early-stage laboratory research (TRL-4+) toward practical deployment by providing support for proof-of-concept development, prototyping, validation, pilot deployment, intellectual property assistance, commercialization, startup creation, and industry partnerships.
So far, the Wadhwani Innovation Network has supported more than 50 high-potential projects in sectors such as healthtech, medtech, biotechnology, and quantum technology.
It has also established Centers of Excellence at leading institutions including IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), and C-CAMP.
In the coming years, the foundation plans to establish major innovation hubs such as the Wadhwani School of AI and Intelligent Systems at IIT Kanpur and the Wadhwani Health and Bio Hub at IIT Bombay.
The National Innovation Network is envisioned as a collaborative platform bringing together government institutions, philanthropic organizations, corporates, CSR initiatives, and other institutional partners to accelerate translational research and innovation through a shared operational and governance framework developed by the Wadhwani Foundation.
Speaking on the partnership, Dr. Ajay Kela, CEO and Board Member of the Wadhwani Foundation, said the collaboration marks a significant step toward scaling India’s innovation potential nationwide.
He said the NIN platform would empower researchers, institutions, and entrepreneurs across the country to transform their ideas into products, startups, and impactful social solutions.
Archana Vyas, Director of the Gates Foundation India Country Office, said many critical healthcare and nutrition innovations of the coming decade are expected to emerge from Indian institutions.
She noted that the partnership will strengthen the entire innovation pipeline—from discovery to deployment—and help develop affordable, scalable, science-based solutions for India as well as the Global South.
The National Innovation Network aims to establish more than 250 Centers of Excellence across India over the next three to five years.
These centers will promote translational research, researcher-led entrepreneurship, venture creation, and commercialization.
The initiative is expected to help thousands of innovations move annually from laboratories to markets and communities, driving innovation-led socio-economic growth while creating large-scale employment and livelihood opportunities across India.