ACIC Community Innovator Fellowship

ACIC Community Innovator Fellowship

Funds community innovators in India with a fellowship path for startup experimentation via ACIC incubation support.

The ACIC Community Innovator Fellowship is a rolling fellowship programme administered by Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog, Government of India, designed to support individual community innovators working within or alongside operationalised Atal Community Innovation Centres (ACICs). ACICs are AIM-established innovation infrastructure nodes located in underserved, unserved, Tier 2/3, aspirational district, and tribal, hilly, or coastal regions of India; the first cohort of 35 selected ACICs produced 14 fully operationalised centres across 15 states and union territories, incubating over 250 startups. The fellowship channels support directly to grassroots innovators who are engaged with these community innovation ecosystems.

The fellowship award is up to INR 2 lakh per fellow, paid directly to the individual. There are no fixed application deadlines — submissions are accepted continuously via a Google Form maintained by AIM. Only individuals who are community innovators associated with operationalised ACICs are eligible; the programme is not open to companies, universities, or research organisations. Applications must be submitted via the designated Google Form link (not the main AIM portal), and there is no batch cycle or competitive review window — the rolling structure allows AIM to identify and fund promising community innovators throughout the year.

To qualify, applicants should be able to demonstrate an active relationship with an operationalised ACIC and articulate a community-level innovation problem being addressed. The parent ACIC programme itself awards up to INR 2.5 crore per host institution over five years on a 1:1 matching model, providing a broader ecosystem context for fellows. Prospective applicants should verify the fellowship Google Form is currently live at aim.gov.in/acic-fellowship.php before applying, as AIM periodically refreshes its form links. This programme is particularly relevant for innovators in agriculture, health, or infrastructure working in India's underserved regions.