The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will establish a 'Space Technology Incubation Centre' (S-TIC) at the National Institute of Technology in Rourkela to carry out research and product development in space technology and applications, officials said on Friday.

The ISRO and NIT signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Thursday for setting up the centre which will enable start-ups to build applications and products that could be used in future space missions.

"Space technology-related research and the products from the S-TIC will be utilised in future space missions and will help nation building through Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' in space technology and applications domain," said ISRO Chairman K Sivan.

"Students and research scholars will execute real projects given by ISRO of NIT-Rourkela taking guidance from expert faculties, mentors from ISRO and relevant industries," he said.

As per the MoU, NIT-Rourkela will provide its state-of-the-art laboratories, facilities and expert faculties to meet these objectives.

The upcoming centre will promote startups, capacity-building, innovations and research in space technology in Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand besides the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Animesh Biswas, Director, NIT-Rourkela, said, "We thank ISRO Chairman and Director of CBPO (Capacity Building Programme Office) for selecting NIT, Rourkela in the eastern region for setting up of S-TIC. NIT-Rourkela's sponsored research and industrial consultancy is one among the best in the country. ISRO's support will further enhance our research infrastructure".

ISRO will provide an annual grant-in-aid of Rs 2 crore for a period of up to two years to NIT-Rourkela as seed money for setting up the S-TIC.

The seed money would be utilised for facility augmentation to carry out the research projects and product development taken from ISRO.

NIT-Rourkela will provide the required infrastructure inside its academic campus.