The institute is one of the seven IISERs established by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, to bridge the gap between research and basic sciences' education at the undergraduate level.

All IISERs are declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Parliament of India in 2012 through the NIT Amendment Act.

Each IISER is a degree-granting autonomous institution with a prime focus to integrate science education and research.

Spanning around 200 acres, Vithura (IISER) is located 40 km from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

[22] Nature Index ranked IISERs as a whole at 4th in the World's 'Top 30 academic institutions under 30' in high-quality research output.