The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) formalized a strategic partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding signed on August 21, 2026, with an official declaration ceremony held on October 13, 2026, at Prithvi Bhawan Headquarters in New Delhi. Under this agreement, all ten premier research institutes under MoES have been recognized as AcSIR Associated Research Institutes (AcSIR-ARIs), creating an integrated ecosystem for advanced scientific research and educational capacity building.
The collaboration combines MoES's state-of-the-art research facilities and scientific expertise with AcSIR's flexible academic framework to offer doctoral (PhD) programs across diverse domains of earth system sciences. Students selected under AcSIR's PhD program will conduct research at MoES institutes under the supervision of MoES scientists recognized as AcSIR faculty, with AcSIR awarding the doctoral degree that explicitly references the host institute on the certificate.
All ten MoES institutes are already operational as AcSIR-ARIs and are participating in AcSIR's latest PhD enrolment cycle. The partnership has established nodal AcSIR Coordinators at each institute alongside a Central Coordinator at MoES to streamline academic operations. Research domains covered include weather forecasting and climate services, numerical weather prediction, polar and cryosphere research, ocean observation and marine robotics, deep-sea mining and desalination, seismology and earthquake hazard assessment, coastal processes, marine living resources, and AI/ML applications in earth sciences.
Regarding intellectual property rights, the framework ensures that IPR generated from research credits the student as inventor, with joint intellectual property being shared mutually between the institutions. Dr. Srinivasa Kumar Tummala, Secretary of MoES, emphasized the vital role of collaborative research and academic partnerships, stating that MoES institutions, scientists, and students engaging with earth sciences would benefit significantly from this association.