NEW DELHI: The government will invest close to Rs 500 crore to set up research parks, technological business incubators and startup centres in premier educational institutes like the Indian Institute of Technology ( IIT ), Indian Institute of Science ( IISc ) and National Institute of Technology, according to a senior official.These institutes had recently made proposals to the ministry of human resources development and the department of science and technology (DST) for such facilities.The official cited earlier told ET that the HRD ministry has committed Rs 50-80 crore towards over Rs 100 crore needed for each research park while the department of science and technology is likely to invest close to Rs 100 crore for setting up of technology business incubators (TBIs) and startup centres.The funds will be released when the institutes are ready, the official said. Six institutes are likely to get funds for research parks including the IIT campuses in Delhi, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar and Guwahati, and IISc Bangalore.At present, only the IIT campuses in Chennai, Kharagpur and Mumbai have research parks. Recently, IIT Delhi announced the launch of a research park with an initial funding of Rs 40 crore which the institute arranged on its own.The institute already has an incubation centre. The official said the move to fund such centres will help the institutes generate additional revenue with creation of intellectual property rights (IPRs).An official at DST said the government has raised the budget for innovation and entrepreneurship to Rs 180 crore from Rs 40 crore last year. “The government is serious about creating more entrepreneurs and startups,” the official said, requesting anonymity.While 10 companies can be incubated in a TBI centre at any given point in time, a startup centre can handle only half this number. In comparison, a research park can host over 100 companies.“Most institutes that made a proposal for setting up research parks, TBIs or startups are seriously being considered for funding by MHRD and DST,” said another official in the HRD ministry.Most of these proposals are being considered by both the government departments for funding. IIT Ropar had made a proposal for a research park, but is likely to get a TBI centre, the official said. However, the institute’s director, SK Das, said, “We are internally ready for a research park and intend to push for this again.”IIT Guwahati is already roping in companies for its proposed research park. Its director, Gautam Biswas, said, “Research parks will help us generate revenues through the creation of IPR.” IIT Guwahati is already in talks with a couple of MNCs in the space of healthcare and pharma.Meanwhile, some of the other IIT campuses, like that in Chennai, which already have a research park, are looking at creating an endowment corpus of .`500-1,000 crore by 2020 for research activities. These institutes may seek funds from the private sector.“We are approaching alumni, corporates and foundations for raising the endowment. We are asking for centres/schools focused on specific domains, named chairs, and so on,” said IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi.