Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research

Not to be confused with Indian Institute of Science or National Institute of Science Education and Research.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research

भारतीय विज्ञान शिक्षा एवं अनुसंधान संस्थान
Other name	IISER or IISERs (plural) or IISER System
Type	Public Research Institutes
Established	2006
Founder	Manmohan Singh and Arjun Singh
Parent institution	Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Accreditation	Ministry of Human Resource Development, MHRD, Government of India
Budget	₹1,462.00 crore (US$180 million) (FY2023–24 est.)
Location	7 cities in India Pune Mohali Bhopal Kolkata Thiruvananthapuram Tirupati Berhampur
Campus	Multiple sites
Language	English
Website	https://www.iisersystem.ac.in/

Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) are prestigious centrally funded institutes(Research oriented only) in India. The institutes were established by the Government of India through the Ministry of Education to provide collegiate education in Basic sciences (BS-MS dual degree, MSc degree, Integrated PhD and PhD) coupled 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 its sister institutes like Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The financial outlay for each IISER is around ₹5 billion (US$60 million) for the first five years of establishment.

Institutes

The IISERs are located in the following locations in India:

Mohali

Kolkata

Pune

Bhopal

Tirupati

Thiruvananthapuram

Berhampur

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Location of 7 IISERs

#	Name	Short Name	Established	City/Town	State/UT	Website	Overall NIRF Rank (2023)	Research NIRF Rank (2023)
1	IISER Pune	IISER-P	2006	Pune	Maharashtra	www.iiserpune.ac.in	34	27
2	IISER Bhopal	IISER-B	2008	Bhopal	Madhya Pradesh	www.iiserb.ac.in	60
3	IISER Mohali	IISER-M	2007	Mohali	Punjab	www.iisermohali.ac.in	51	50
4	IISER Kolkata	IISER-K	2006	kalyani	West Bengal	www.iiserkol.ac.in	43
5	IISER Thiruvananthapuram	IISER-TVM	2008	Thiruvananthapuram	Kerala	www.iisertvm.ac.in
6	IISER Tirupati	IISER-T	2015	Tirupati	Andhra Pradesh	www.iisertirupati.ac.in
7	IISER Berhampur	IISER-BPR	2016	Berhampur	Odisha	www.iiserbpr.ac.in

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 acres (1.0 km²) 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

As of 2023, The tentative total number of seats available for BS-MS/BS program is 1808 .For each channel of admission below, additional cut-off criteria of respective IISERs are applicable. Candidates satisfying any of the following criteria are eligible for applying:

1. JEE (Advanced) channel: Candidates in General category securing a rank within 15000 in the Common Rank List (CRL) of the JEE Advanced are eligible to apply. For candidates belonging to reserved category (OBC Non-Creamy Layer, SC, ST, Persons with Disability (PwD)), their category rank should be within 15000. Students must have to qualify JEE ADVANCED exam on the same year of IISER ADMISSION. JEE (Advanced) preparatory ranks are not eligible for admission.
   • Candidates seeking admission under this channel do not have to appear for IAT Exam. 25% of seats filled by JEE advanced channel.
2. KVPY channel: This channel of admission closed as KVPY Aptitude test will not conducted from the year 2022 onwards and KVPY abolished by Government of India. So This KVPY channel no longer valid for IISER admission.
3. IISER Aptitude Test (IAT) channel (also known as the STATE CENTRAL BOARD channel): Admission to at least 75% of the seats in IISER happens through the IAT exam. This channel must appear for a computer-based IISER Aptitude Test(IAT exam). It covers physics, chemistry, math and biology of class 11 and 12th standards syllabus ; students have to attend all four sections. Candidates must have taken at least three among Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics during their higher secondary course (10+2) level. IAT will consist of 60 questions, 15 questions each from Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics. Total time for answering the test will be 180 minutes. Questions will be of multiple choice type with only one correct answer. The total marks obtained by a candidate out of 240 will be considered for preparing the Rank List. Not every candidate appearing in IAT will be awarded a rank. Rank cut-off will be announced at an appropriate time. Further, getting a rank does not guarantee offer/admission to an IISER.
   • Each correct answer will be awardedach incorrect answer will lead to the deduction of 1 mark.
   • Unanswered questions will be awarded 0 mark.
   • Therefore, maximum marks in IAT will be 240.

IISER Aptitude Test (IAT) 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 Programme.

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.