The Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) of KISS Deemed to be University organized a MIC-driven activity on “Strengthening Research and Innovation Ecosystem in HEIs: Leveraging MANTHAN and UTTHAN” on 28 August 2026. Faculty members, researchers, students, and IIC members joined the online session to understand how higher education institutions can deepen industry collaboration, strengthen research capacity and translate ideas into solutions with measurable social and economic impact.
Held under the aegis of the Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, the session featured representatives from the Strategic Alliance Division of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India. The speakers stressed that meaningful innovation starts with validating real-world problems and maintaining sustained engagement with industry and society. They also explained how MANTHAN and UTTHAN enable institutions, innovators, and other stakeholders to collaborate on demand-driven research and innovation.
MANTHAN was introduced as a free digital platform of the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser that connects demand-side stakeholders—such as industries, government agencies, philanthropic organizations, and other opportunity providers—with supply-side participants, including academic and research institutions, start-ups, MSMEs, incubators, innovators, and individual solution providers. Participants learned that registered stakeholders could explore opportunities, respond to industry problem statements, display research and market-ready innovations, engage with subject-matter experts, and access calls for research, Centers of Excellence, fellowships, internships, implementation partnerships, and social-impact initiatives.
