The regional focus of the research and teaching at SAI are the countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
From then until 1945, these buildings served as a part of the Neues Akademisches Krankenhaus (New Academic Hospital) in Heidelberg.
In 2012, the dermatological clinic, which was based in the building that would later house SAI, was shifted to Neuenheimer Feld.
SAI has branch offices in New Delhi (India), Islamabad (Pakistan), Kathmandu (Nepal), and Colombo (Sri Lanka).
These include Bangladesh and Bengal, the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya region, Delhi, Odisha, Punjab in Pakistan, south India and Sri Lanka, and Varanasi.