Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are a group of autonomous institutions established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Education for teaching and research in natural science and to provide collegiate education in basic sciences integrated with research at the undergraduate level.

The institutes were formally established by the Parliament of India through the Science Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2010. Seven IISERs have been established across the country, namely IISER Pune in Maharashtra, IISER Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, IISER Mohali in Punjab, IISER Kolkata in West Bengal, IISER Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, IISER Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, and IISER Berhampur in Odisha. All IISERs were declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India in 2012, to promote them as leading institutions in the country in the field of basic sciences along with institutes like Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The financial outlay for each IISER is around inr 5000000000 for the first five years of establishment.

Institutes
The IISERs are located in the following locations in India:

Future institutes

 * IISER Nagaland, a new IISER in Nagaland was announced in the 2015-16 budget. Initially the Nagaland government suggested a different institute (SPA – School of Planning and Architecture) instead of an IISER. After many years, in 2021 and 2022, the Nagaland state government has shown renewed interest on establishing this earlier announced IISER in Nagaland. Whether the decision was unilateral or ‘advised’ is unknown, but the end result is clear – neither the IISER nor the SPA was established in Nagaland. However, a letter written by the then Chief Minister, TR Zeliang to Smriti Zubin Irani, the then Union Minister for the erstwhile Union Human Resource Development dated December 16, 2015, informed of the choice.

Locations
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune has started functioning from the National Chemical Laboratory Pune campus. Its campus has mostly been developed. The labs, lecture hall complexes, main buildings, and the hostels have been set up in the permanent campus.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali has started functioning from the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration complex in Sector 26 Chandigarh. The foundation stone for its permanent campus was laid in September 2006 by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh. It started functioning at its permanent campus at Sector 81, Mohali.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal started functioning from the ITI Gas Rahat Building Govindpura Bhopal. The institute was moved to its main campus in Bhauri in August 2012.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata was functioning from the temporary campus at Mohanpur, a temporary arrangement within the campus of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV) previously and now almost all the labs have been shifted to its permanent campus, over 250 acre of land at Haringhata, Kalyani near Kolkata.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Thiruvananthapuram started functioning recently from its own permanent campus at Vithura, which is 40 km from Thiruvananthapuram city. Earlier, it was functioning from a temporary campus at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati started functioning from a transient campus at Mangalam, Tirupati about 7 km from the city in 2015. The permanent campus has been planned to be constructed at Yerpedu, about a half-an-hour away from the city in a plot of 250 acres (1 km2) near the foothills of the Saptagiri ranges and Phase-1 of the construction is to expected to be completed by 2019.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Berhampur commenced in Odisha in 2016. It is functioning from a transit campus at Government ITI. Its permanent campus is being built at Laudigam, near the sea, 20 km from Berhampur, Odisha.

Academics and admission
Until 2023, JEE Advanced results could be used as a procedure for getting into IISERs, and until 2022, the defunct KVPY exam was another criterion for admission.

However, starting 2024, admission to the undergraduate programs at IISERs will exclusively through the IISER Aptitude Test.

IISER Aptitude Test (IAT) is also used for admitting student to the following institutes like Bachelor of Science (Research) program of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore and BS-Medical Sciences and Engineering program of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM).

Courses of IISERs
All the 7 IISERS providing 5-year BS-MS programs in Biological, Chemical, Mathematical, Geological, Physical and Earth, climate, Environmental Sciences, as well as Computer Programming and Humanities course, MSc, MS(Research) , Integrated PhD , Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and Post Doctoral Research Programs.

Note: 4-year BS degree in Engineering Sciences (Chemical Engineering, Data Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science) and Economic Sciences only provided at IISER Bhopal

For 5-year BS-MS programs, In the first year, all students are introduced to basic sciences, viz., Biological, Chemical, Mathematical, Physical and Earth Sciences, as well as Computer Programming and Humanities courses. In the second year, the students select three pre-major subjects from the first five disciplines mentioned above. In the third and fourth years, students study a major subject from the three pre-major subjects chosen in the second level and need to take interdisciplinary courses as electives. The fifth year is almost completely devoted to full time research/technical project/specialized training in which the students need to prepare a dissertation. At the end of the fifth year, both Bachelor and Masters Degrees are awarded to successful students.