The Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is setting up its temporary facility in Hyderabad this year, ahead of a full-fledged campus on 109 acre land adjacent to University of Hyderabad that is likely to be ready in three years from now.
The institute is taking on lease a 15,000 sft ready-built structure from June 1 and would set up laboratories in six-seven month, according to KVR Chary, chairman, Department of Chemical Sciences, TIFR. The facility would house a nuclear magnetic resonance laboratory, which is used in the study of molecular structure, among other research facilities, he told Business Standard.
TIFR, an autonomous institution under the Department of Atomic Energy, is engaged in basic research in three broad disciplines of mathematical sciences, natural sciences, and technology and computer applications at its main campus in Mumbai and two other centres in Bangalore and Pune. It also runs a National Balloon Centre in the city.
The Hyderabad facility would work as a centre of interdisciplinary sciences with researchers from various backgrounds carrying out projects in areas like understanding and unraveling the mysteries of molecular structures of living matter and problems of biology, physics and computational physics.
Though the institute has set up a team of 15 scientists at the Mumbai campus to oversee research and teaching endeavours at this facility, a fresh recruitment of faculty dedicated to Hyderabad is also on the anvil.
“At this stage, we are planning to move 20-25 PhDs to this facility to undertake regular research. There is no plan to launch graduate courses with fresh batches until our own campus is ready,” Chary, who played a key role in conceptualising the proposed Hyderabad campus, said. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation stone for the Hyderabad campus late last year.
Ratan Tata, who is the chairman of the council of management of TIFR, has taken personal interest in master planning and architectural designing of the Hyderabad campus, which is expected to see an investment of over Rs 2,000 crore. It is planning to invite global bids for finalising architectural plans for the new campus, according to institute officials.
