Technology Fellowship and Patent Promotion Scheme(TFAPPS)

Overview

About TFAPPS

The person this Goa scheme pays is a teacher. Clause 4.1 of the scheme document opens eligibility to "all technology educators in technical educational institutes in Goa" and stops there, so a student cannot apply, a startup cannot apply, and an institute cannot apply on a teacher's behalf, per the scheme text on Goa Online. That single line is the difference between this and almost every other item in Goa's start-up incentive list.

Two grants sit inside this one scheme, and the patent grant is closed to anyone the Cell has not already made a fellow. A teacher selected as a fellow gets an educational grant of Rs 10 lakh a year for a period of five years to go and train at a Centre of Excellence in India or abroad. If that same fellow then registers a business and value driven patent in the area they were selected for, working alone or with their students, the Start-up Promotion Cell can release a patent specific grant of up to Rs 15 lakh, subject to its own certification (scheme document). The patent money is not an open window for any Goan inventor. It attaches to a serving fellow.

Two things in the public record about this scheme do not line up, and both are worth knowing before an application is drafted. The myScheme listing files the scheme under the Information and Publicity Department; the scheme's own text names the Department of IT, and the Goa Online service page for it is owned by the Information Technology, Electronics and Communications Department, with the Director (IT) as the designated officer (service page). The same myScheme listing also describes the scheme as one "for the Startups of Goa", which the eligibility clause contradicts outright. Where the record beneath this page and the departmental documents disagree, the departmental documents are the ones the Start-up Promotion Cell works from.

The vintage matters as much as the amounts. Both grants belong to the scheme notified under the Goa Start-up Policy 2017, no later notification has restated either figure, and the department's own front page now says that policy lapsed in September 2020 with its extension still awaited (Start-up Goa home page).

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

There is no annual advertisement and no closing date to plan around; the deadline that governs an application is the one belonging to the course the applicant is chasing. After filing, the two dates that bind the department are the 45 days for a decision and the 60 days for disbursement (scheme document).

The status of the scheme itself is the harder question, and the honest answer is that its parent policy lapsed. The Goa Start-up Policy 2017 was written to remain in operation for a period of three years from notification, and the notice on the Start-up Goa home page states that the policy expired in September 2020, that an extension is awaited, and that applications received so far will be processed once an extension notification is released. What replaced it does not carry this scheme forward in the same shape. The Goa Start-up Policy 2021 reduces the fellowship to a single sentence of intent, in which the cell would collaborate with the Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and the Department of Higher Education, Technical Education to jointly run a technology fellowship programme, with no grant, no tenure and no patent limb attached. The Goa Start-up Policy 2025 drops the fellowship altogether. The department's current Startup Incentives page lists nine schemes and this is not among them, although the Goa Online service for it is still published with an apply button. A teacher planning around this scheme should call the department before assembling a file.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Being a technology educator in Goa is the whole published test. The scheme text sets no domicile requirement, fixes no age bar, asks for no minimum degree or length of service, and never mentions income (scheme document). The real filter sits in the benefits clause instead: the Start-up Promotion Cell picks one educator in each focus area, and the areas are named. Internet of things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, interaction design, big data analytics, robotics, 3-D printing, data science, drones, and virtual, augmented or merged reality make the list, with anything else admitted only if the Cell approves it.

On one point the parent policy and the scheme beneath it do not draw the same circle. Paragraph 6(g) of the Goa Start-up Policy 2017 speaks of technology educators in technical educational institutes under Goa University, while the scheme notified beneath it says technical educational institutes in Goa. A teacher at a Goa institute outside the university's affiliation sits in that gap, and only the Cell can resolve it.

For the patent limb, eligibility is narrower still, because the clause begins with "in case such educators/fellows" and refers back to the people already selected for the fellowship.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

No clause in the scheme names a disqualified category. Four conditions scattered through its text do that work between them. A benefit under it is never an entitlement and the Cell keeps the sole right to reject any application. The patent grant may be claimed only one time in the entire policy period. Unutilised money has to be returned with a grant utilisation certificate within 3 months of the course ending. And the bond in the annexure has to be furnished before the application is complete, so a teacher unwilling to sign it is out at the first step (scheme document). A fifth bar sits in the document list rather than among the conditions: the cancelled cheque a fellow files has to be drawn on an account outside the cooperative banking system (Goa Online service page).

Continuation

Renewal conditions

A fellowship year does not roll over on its own. If a fellow is accepted to a follow-up course or a later session of the programme they already attended, they apply to the Cell again in the prescribed format for permission to attend, and any further funding is released only on special permission from the high powered State Committee. Follow-up courses stay available for up to a duration of five years, with the right to grant recurring benefits resting solely with the Cell (scheme document). The patent grant has no renewal at all, because it is capped at one claim across the whole policy period.

What you get

Award & benefits

Money is not the only thing a fellow receives, and it is not free of obligation either. The Cell identifies and enlists the institutes, universities and courses a fellow may attend, and the Department of IT undertakes to set up Centres of Excellence and Advanced Maker Labs in the listed technologies at selected technical institutes, where returning fellows are required to work as Master Trainers or Principal Mentors to students and to student start-ups being incubated there (scheme document).

The payment runs as a grant against an approved course rather than as a reimbursement of bills already paid. That is why the application asks for the acceptance letter and the fee schedule up front, and why the utilisation certificate and the return of unspent money come afterwards. The record on myScheme marks the scheme as not routed through direct benefit transfer, and the service page asks for a cancelled cheque, which is how the account for credit is established.

• A technology fellowship program will run to identify technology educators in technical educational institutes in Goa who are keen to further their expertise in the following areas: Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Interaction Design, Big Data Analytics, Robotics, 3-D Printing, Data Science, Drones, Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality/Merged Reality, Others (subject to approval from SPC).
• The selected educators/fellows would be sent to Centres of Excellence within the country and abroad to undertake summer school and short-term training programs to further their learning in their area of specialization.- The Department of IT will set up Centres of Excellence/Advanced Maker Labs in the technologies outlined above, in select technical educational institutes. Such selected educators/fellows will function as Master Trainers/Principal Mentors to students and student start-ups that would be incubated in such facilities.- The educators/fellows, upon selection, would receive an educational grant of ₹10,00,000 per year, for a period of five years.- The benefit of this scheme can be availed by up to ten educators/fellows per year, with one person in each focus area, who will be selected by the SPC as per its guidelines.
• In case such educators/fellows generate and get any business and value-driven patents registered in their area of specialization, either through individual research or in collaboration with students, such fellows shall be eligible to receive a patent-specific grant of up to ₹15,00,000, subject to certification by the Start-up Promotion Cell (SPC).
• NOTE: Under no circumstance shall the benefits under this scheme be considered an entitlement. The SPC shall reserve the sole right to accept or reject applications.

What to prepare

Documents required

Nine items are common to both published lists, and they are the ones the page below reproduces from the record. What the record does not carry is the tenth: the Goa Online service page and the downloadable form for this scheme both ask for a cancelled cheque of the applicant's bank account, with cooperative bank accounts not accepted, while the compendium of Goa Start-up Policy 2017 schemes omits it. An applicant assembling a file from the compendium alone would arrive one document short.

The annexure numbers are worth reading twice, because the scheme sheet numbers the bond twice over: its procedure clause sends an applicant to Annexure 3, while its own document table calls the same bond Annexure 2. The annexures themselves break the tie. In the compendium of Goa Start-up Policy 2017 schemes, Annexure 2 is the statement of purpose and Annexure 3 is the general bond, and the Goa Online document list is numbered the same way. The statement of purpose is not a paragraph either; the compendium sets it at 1000 words.

Step by step

How to apply

Goa runs this one online, and the record filed on myScheme, which still carries an offline application mode, is a step behind the portal. The Goa Online service page sets out four steps: register on startup.goa.gov.in and log in, fill in the application form, attach the relevant documents, then submit and note the acknowledgement number. The scheme's own procedure clause is written for the paper world and simply says interested educators may apply directly to the Cell in the prescribed format, with a statement of purpose and a work plan attached.

The calendar that governs a fellowship application belongs to the course, not to the department. Applications may be filed at any time of the year, but the scheme requires each one to be aligned with the deadline of the programme the applicant wants admission to, so the Cell has enough time to evaluate and release funds (scheme document).

Checking Where a Claim Has Reached

Step four of the portal's instructions ends by telling an applicant to note the acknowledgement number, and that number is the only handle the Track Status service on Goa Online will work on. Two service standards give an applicant something to measure the wait against, both set in the scheme document: approval or rejection is to be notified within 45 days of the Cell receiving the application, and an approved amount is to be disbursed within 60 days of approval. The state's own ease of doing business notification lists this scheme at serial 14, under the Department of Information Technology, with the same 60 days from date of approval and with the scheme marked as included in the Single Window System (Startup and IT Policy Timelines). Where a file stops moving, the department's helpline on 1800-233-5060 and the state nodal officer are the escalation named on the Start-up Goa contact page.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Selection is competitive and it is face to face. Applications go to the Cell and to a panel of evaluators constituted for the purpose; shortlisted applicants are called for an interview and a presentation before both, on a date the Cell communicates; and on that evaluation the Cell selects one educator in each focus area. The Cell also reserves the right to take suo moto cognizance of a research thesis or of an educator for the purposes of the fellowship, which means a nomination can start without an application. Selection is not the end of it: the chosen educator still has to apply for and secure admission to a recognised summer, winter or faculty development course in the same area, at an institute the Cell has listed (scheme document).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Of everything an applicant signs, the general bond at Annexure 3 is the term that carries a price. It binds the fellow to a sum equal to five times the amount the Cell paid them, payable within 6 months of default, if they fail to provide professional services as the scheme requires after the course ends (compendium of Goa Start-up Policy 2017 schemes). Alongside it sit the standing conditions: the benefit is never an entitlement, the Cell is the competent authority to accept or reject a claim and its decision is final and binding, a grant utilisation certificate is due within 3 months of course completion, and any unutilised amount goes back.

Get help

Contact

The scheme is administered by the Start-up Promotion Cell under the Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Government of Goa, at IT HUB, 2nd Floor, Altinho, Panaji, Goa 403001. The department publishes a helpline on 1800-233-5060, an email written on its site as spc-dit[dot]goa[at]gov[dot]in, business hours of Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and a state nodal officer with the Startup and IT Promotion team named individually (Start-up Goa contact page). For the application itself, the officer designated on Goa Online is the Director (IT).

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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