Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research have been declared as Institutes of National Importance under the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education & Research (NITSER) Act, 2012. These Institutes are envisaged to carry out research in frontier areas of science and to provide quality science education at the Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate level. Earlier there were five IISERs at Kolkata, Pune, Mohali, Bhopal and Thiruvananthapuram. After coming to power this Government started an IISER at Tirupati in 2015.
To increase the presence of IISERs in various States/ geographical locations to cater to the need for quality education in science and research, the Union Finance Minister, in his Budget Speech (2015) had announced setting up of an IISER in the State of Odisha.
Accordingly, today the Cabinet approved the setting up of IISER Berhampur at the transit/ temporary campus at academic-cum-workshop building of the Government ITI, Berhampur. The student strength intake for this year in the BS-MS course is 60 which will progressively go up and the cumulative student strength is envisaged as 665 in the 3rd year, including MS Degree, MS-Ph.D, Ph.D and Post Doctoral Fellowships. The total cost of the project for temporary campus is Rs. 152.79 crores. EdCIL, a PSU of Ministry of HRD, Government of India has been asked to submit a proposal for preparation of Detailed Project Report for the permanent campuses. Thereafter the process for setting up of the campus would start.
The Union Cabinet also approved the proposed amendment of the National Institute of Technology, Science Education & Research (NITSER) Act, 2007 to incorporate the two new IISERs at Tirupati and Berhampur at Sl. No. 6 and 7 of the Second Schedule to the Act.