Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is initiating of setting up a shared, professionally managed, Science and Technology infrastructure facility, which can be readily be accessible to academia, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries and R&D Labs. Such S&T infrastructure will be known as Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institute (SATHI). These Centres will be equipped with major analytical instrument and advanced manufacturing facility, which is usually not available at Institutes / Organizations. The aim is to provide professionally managed services with efficiency, accessibility and transparency of highest order under one roof to service the demands of industry, start-ups and academia.

Till December 2024, five SATHI facilities are being hosted at IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur, BHU- Varanasi, IIT- Hyderabad and BITS- Pilani.

This effort is expected to reach out much needed less endowed organizations like MSMEs, Start-ups, State Universities and Colleges fostering a strong culture of research collaboration between institutions and across disciplines to take advantage of developments, innovations and expertise in diverse areas.

Aims & Objectives of SATHI

• The aim of SATHI is to provide a shared, professionally managed services and strong Science and Technology infrastructure / facilities, with efficiency, accessibility and transparency of highest order under one roof to service the demands of faculty, researchers, scientist and students of Host and User institutes / organizations (including other academic institutes, universities, national laboratories, start-ups, manufacturing and engineering industries, SME’s, R&D Labs) to enable them to carry out R&D activities on a round the clock basis with minimum downtime.
• SATHI will have facilities for fabrication work, rapid prototyping, material testing, characterization, new device fabrication, smart manufacturing and characterization facilities etc., to attract and help R&D labs, industrial R&D, MSME, Incubators and Start-ups, etc.
• To organize short term courses / workshops / seminars, hands-on training programme etc. on the use and application of various instruments and techniques for both External and Internal Users / Researcher and provide the technical help and scientific knowledge to the end Users while accessing these sophisticated scientific instruments.
• To train technicians for maintenance and operation of sophisticated scientific instruments and keep a record book of these people trained with various specialized equipment available with respective centers and to engage these trained persons, while required for any other SATHI Centres for better societal outreach and utilization of these trained manpower.

General Information

Largely this scheme is focusing at (a) procurement and maintenance of high-end equipment and infrastructure facility necessary for research/ testing/ manufacturing/ fabrication. To cater service by understanding the demands of researchers, scientists, students, start-ups, manufacturing units, industries and R&D Labs, (b) Providing access and sharing of scientific equipment and infrastructure, (c) Capacity Building of operators and technicians for efficient operations and interpretations of results/ outcome, (d) Monitoring of usage of expensive scientific research infrastructure for maximum utilization of Infrastructure Management with efficient operations and to be a part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ (Self Reliant India Campaign). 

Inclusive purpose of SATHI is generation/ creation of knowledge adopting best practices of such facility, expansion of different knowledge chain that starts from R&D to applied science then to translational research side and how to take forward to next stage to gain better societal outreach. 

Perceptibly, this would encourage & ensure to create a National Network of Laboratories and testing facilities, tightly linked to global standards. Hence higher efficacy through (T2C2) focused Viz: Technology, Testing, Certification & Compliance, approach through SATHI will boost-up the manufacturing clusters / industries. 

SATHI facilities will be used for 80% of their available time by External Users i.e. out-side of the Host Institutes and rest 20% of available time for Internal Users of the Host Institute. The usage of the facility will be guided by the basic principle of maximum and effective utilization and accessibility to all.

The facilities provided by the SATHI may be utilized by any user/organization on payment of nominal charges (through I-STEM portal I-STEM). The details about the procedure for using the facilities and the charges for sample analysis, information about short term courses/training programmes/workshops etc. can be obtained from the respective Heads of the SATHI or the websites of the Facilities.

Establishment of SATHI facilities in the country with sharing of funds (75:25) and consortium mode of approach with academia, research institutes, non-government organizations, S&T councils and industries from current FY 2022-23 onward has been initiated & running successfully. Through such initiative the selection of new SATHI facilities is under process to strengthen the R&D Infrastructure across the country.

INAUGURATION OF SATHI FACILITY of IIT Hyderabad, ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2024

The SATHI facility at IIT Hyderabad is set up by a consortium of 18 partner institutes, with a generous support of DST through SATHI program. The Centre is a cornerstone of cutting-edge characterization. This center would be the first in the nation to enable real-time characterization across multiple length scales for fundamental and industrial R&D purposes. This initiative aims to bring together scientists from various scientific disciplines, including physical sciences, chemistry, biology, and pharmaceutical studies, to address common scientific goals that can only be addressed using sophisticated microscopy techniques.

SATHI FACILITIES @ IIT HYDERABAD

INAUGURATION OF SATHI FACILITY of IIT Kharagpur, ON APRIL 12, 2024

SATHI FACILITIES @ IIT KHARAGPUR

Time-of-flight -SIMS          Aberration corrected high-resolution TEM (HR-TEM)

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