Co-working with Universities
A memorandum in a drawer is not a relationship.
Most industry-academia partnerships are a signing ceremony and then silence, because nobody owns the middle. Udgam replaces the ceremony with four working channels — each with defined deliverables, milestones and money.
- Student R&D teams
- Faculty consulting
- Lab access
- Joint IP
Four working channels
Every one of them has a deliverable, a timeline and a price.
Student project teams on your real problems
Post a genuine business challenge as a semester-long project. A faculty-supervised student team takes it, works to a milestone plan, and hands back a deliverable.
- Typical project fee ₹30,000, paid to the institution
- Fourteen weeks, aligned to the academic semester
- Teams matched on their combined competency profile, not on who applied first
- Milestone reviews at weeks 4, 8 and 12 — you can course-correct, and pivots are permitted with your approval
- Four standard IP options, agreed before work begins
Faculty consulting on your domain problems
Post a consulting requirement. Faculty with relevant depth respond with a scope, timeline and rate. The platform handles agreements, escrow and quality review.
- Typical engagement ₹40,000 to ₹80,000 for four to six weeks
- Standard NDA and engagement agreement templates, so nothing waits on legal
- Milestone escrow — 50% on start, 50% on delivery
- You rate the engagement afterwards; the rating is public on the faculty profile
Lab and infrastructure access
Book university equipment your team needs occasionally and cannot justify owning — testing rigs, fabrication facilities, specialist instrumentation.
- Booked by the hour or the day, with the institution's technician included
- Faculty supervision available as a separate line if you want the expertise too
- Typical use: prototype testing, a two-week stress test, verification work
- Minimum four hours, maximum four weeks per booking
IP co-creation
Jointly develop something novel with a defined team — your domain expert, a faculty lead and a student group — with ownership agreed before anyone starts.
- Four standard split models: 50/50 joint, company-led, institution-led, or a startup spin-off with equity
- A private workspace with version-controlled deliverables and a tracked milestone plan
- Templates reviewed by IP counsel and registered with DPIIT
- Patent filing support through Udgam's network on completion
The economics
What an agency charges, against what a university costs.
| What you need | Agency or consultancy | Through Udgam |
|---|---|---|
| A working prototype from a raw concept | ₹5–15 lakh, three to six months | ₹30,000 project fee, one semester, faculty-supervised |
| Domain research and a written report | ₹3–8 lakh for a consultancy engagement | ₹40,000–₹80,000 to a faculty member with genuine depth in exactly that area |
| Specialist equipment for a two-week test | Capital purchase, or a commercial testing lab at premium rates | Hourly or daily booking of infrastructure that already exists and sits idle after hours |
| A protectable innovation | In-house R&D headcount, or acquisition | A joint team with pre-agreed IP split and patent filing support |
typical cost of a semester-long student project against a five-to-fifteen-lakh agency equivalent
fixed project timeline, aligned to the academic semester so it never drifts
platform fee on faculty consulting, deducted from your payment — not from the faculty fee
The deepest tier
At Strategic Partner level, you stop being a recruiter and start shaping the curriculum.
- A minimum three-year term
- Infrastructure co-investment — a lab, equipment, or cloud credits
- One representative in the curriculum advisory meeting
- A dedicated hiring target from partner universities
- Participation in the IP co-creation programme
- Exclusive category rights — no competitor in your sector at that university
- First access to every graduate in your specified domains
- Joint patent and IP ownership on co-created innovations
- A named lab or programme, and the brand association that comes with it
- A dedicated account manager and custom pipeline analytics
Getting started
From a first post to a working relationship.
Post one real problem
Not a curated teaching case. Something your team genuinely has not got to. The quality of what comes back is directly proportional to the honesty of the brief.The institution approves the engagement
Their admin reviews your profile and the brief. That gate exists to protect students and it protects you too — an approved engagement carries institutional weight.The platform matches a team and a supervisor
Student teams by combined competency profile; faculty supervisors by domain expertise tags. You approve the match before work begins.Fourteen weeks with milestones
Week 4 and week 8 reviews with you in the room. Week 12 delivery. Week 14 rating, credits and disbursement.The relationship compounds
The students who did well are now on your watchlist. The faculty supervisor is now a consulting contact. The institution now has a reason to route their best students to you.
Universities and industry, working on the same problems at the same time.
Co-working
Universities and industry, working on the same problems at the same time.
Innovative Projects
Real business problems. Real student teams. Real outcomes.
Viksit Bharat
Every student placed is one more proof that $30 trillion is possible.
Corporates
Keep exploring
- Why Udgam for CorporatesKnow your next hire three years before you hire them.Read
- Talent Discovery & Verified HiringFilter on cognitive depth, not keywords and CGPA.Read
- 3-Year Early Access ProgrammeWatchlist a student in Year 1. Hire them in Year 4.Read
- Hackathons & Campus EventsBranded challenges with judged, CO-linked submissions.Read
- Partner CommunitiesStructured early access for industry bodies and HR networks.Read
Innovation Partner
Bring one problem you haven't got to.
A student team, a faculty supervisor and a semester. If the first one works, the rest follows on its own.