Students, professors, researchers at R&D institutes and labs, industry professionals, individuals and grassroots innovators can all participate in this initiative and submit their projects before the 30th May.

With the aim of spotting young and promising innovators across the country and helping them transform their innovations into major products, Agilent Technologies, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) have come together to launch the India Innovation Initiative - i3. This is expected to bring together the expertise of Agilent in transforming innovations into products, the knowledge-based networks of DST and the demand for innovations from CII.

The three are to work towards taking the innovations with the most potential to the market, through incubation, mentoring and commercialisation support. i3 will also get support from experts at IIM Ahmedabad. The good thing is that i3 is not restricted to schools, colleges, universities or to industry alone, but is open to all innovators above 18 years, irrespective of their background or profession.

i3 aims to create an eco-system that is conducive for growth through innovation by sensitising, encouraging and promoting innovators and facilitating commercialisation of innovations. Interested participants can register online at www.innovationgrid.org/i3. The last day for submission of projects is May 30, 2009.