Atal Community Innovation Centre · Mangaluru, Karnataka
Where the coast builds what comes next.
Who we are
A workshop for the coast's next builders.
ACIC Sahyadri Foundation is an Atal Community Innovation Centre — a national network set up by the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog to take innovation infrastructure beyond metro cities. Hosted at Sahyadri College of Engineering & Management, we exist for the fisherfolk's daughter with a cold-chain idea, the farmer testing a prototype, and the student who has never set foot in a metro incubator.
Coastal Karnataka carries agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and a large diaspora economy that metro-centric innovation support has never quite reached. That gap is the reason this centre exists outside a metro at all.
“Built outside a metro, closer to the problem.”
Numbers we're accountable to.
Updated each quarter. An empty metric stays off this band until it's real.
Innovators supported
Startups incubated
Prototypes developed
Sq ft of facility
SUPPORT CONTINUUM
Our support continuum
One pipeline, four stages. Wherever you are on it, there is a next step.
Idea & Discovery
For anyone with a problem worth solving and no fixed idea of the solution yet. No company, no degree, no formal proposal required.
- Open problem-framing sessions and community consultations
- Access to mentors to stress-test the idea
- A route into Pre-Incubation once the problem is well defined
Four focus areas, one region
Chosen because they map to what coastal Karnataka actually needs — not because they are trending elsewhere.
Infrastructure preview
A makerspace, a fabrication bay and labs that exist to turn a sketch into a working prototype.
Community Innovator Fellowship
Our clearest expression of the mission: a fellowship for grassroots innovators who have never had access to workspace, mentoring or fabrication tools — no formal qualifications required.
CURRENT STATUS
Next cohort — dates to be announced
Success Stories
From the coast, into the market
One innovator at a time.
The fabrication bay let us build three working versions of our aquaculture sensor before we'd spent a rupee on a factory run.
Innovator name
Founder, coastal aquaculture startup — Focus: Blue Economy
OUTCOME
Prototype built and validated
Building coastal Karnataka's innovation ecosystem takes more than one institution.
Fund a Fellowship cohort or sponsor a lab and put your CSR mandate to work with a named, reportable outcome.
Set a challenge statement and get first access to solutions built specifically for it.
Host a demo day, mentor a cohort, or bring your institution into the AIM network.