NISER Bhubaneswar, India

Chandigarh, June 21: The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) will start functioning from Mahatma Gandhi PSIPA, Sector 26 in July. The announcement was part of the budget presentation in the Punjab Assembly.

The foundation stone of the institute was laid by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September last year in Mohali. Though starting in PSIPA, the institute will later be shifted to a campus in Mohali.

The institute will have facilities for both graduate and post graduate classes. Funded by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the cost of the project is estimated at around Rs 500 crore. The aim is to promote scientific research and technological development and help improve the level of pure as well as applied sciences.

It is proposed that the institute would have academic programmes in physical sciences, chemical sciences, mathematics, material sciences, environment and earth system sciences, life sciences and computer sciences. Apart from these, the institute would also admit post-doctoral fellows.

When fully established, the total strength of the integrated MSc programme in each discipline is proposed to be 1,000 and that of the doctoral and post-doctoral programmes about 1,055.