Government of India earmarked an initial outlay of ₹823.19 crore (US$95 million) during the first seven years of the project, starting in September 2007.

[6] The Odisha government provided 300 acres (1.2 km2) for the permanent campus near Barunei Hills, between Bhubaneswar, the state capital, and Khurda.

The academic complex consists of 72,700 m2 in eleven buildings, including the administrative block, schools of physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology and humanities and social sciences, library, auditorium and meditation centre.

The residential township has a built up area of 10,200 m2 comprising nine buildings for hostels, faculty and staff quarters and a director's bungalow.

The DNA in the centre acknowledges the discovery of its double helix structure by Watson and Crick as a major breakthrough in biology, perhaps "the most important step forward in life sciences after Darwin's theory of evolution".

Degrees at NISER[10] will be awarded by the Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), a deemed-to-be University within the Department of Atomic Energy.

Candidates should have qualified a national level entrance exam for PhD program (like GATE, JGEEBILS, CSIR-NET, UGC-NET, etc.).

To get admission, students have to qualify the – NET (CSIR/UGC) / GATE / NBHM or equivalent examination valid for the current year in the relevant area of research.

To broaden the intellectual horizon of the students, there are compulsory liberal arts courses drawing from Humanities and Social Sciences areas such as; Technical Communication, Sociology, Economics, Psychology, Philosophy, etc.

NISER has been included in the list of a selected few institutions where students directly qualify to receive a scholarship under the Scholarship for Higher Education (SHE) category of the INSPIRE (Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research)[13] programme launched by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India.

All admitted students receive a scholarship of ₹5,000 (US$58) per month which may be sufficient to meet the course fees and boarding costs on campus.

The National Entrance Screening Test or NEST[16] is a compulsory test for admission to the 5-year Integrated MSc programme in basic sciences - Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics - at National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER) and University of Mumbai - Department of Atomic Energy's UM-DAE CEBS, Mumbai.

Swachhata Pakhwada is observed with the objective of bringing a fortnight of intense focus on the issues and practices of Swacchata by engaging GOI Ministries/Departments in their jurisdiction.