The institutes were formally established by the Parliament of India through the Science Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2010.

Labs, Lecture Hall complexes, main buildings, and hostels have been set up in a permanent campus.

The foundation stone for its permanent campus was laid in September 2006 by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh at Sector 81, Mohali.

Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati is functioning fully on the permanent campus, which was constructed at Yerpedu in 2024, about a half-hour away from the city in a plot of about 250 acres (1 km2) near the foothills of the Saptagiri range.

The fifth year is almost completely devoted to full time research/ technical projects/ specialized training in which the students need to prepare a dissertation.