Advanced Space Research Group (ASRG) was established at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in 2020, by Department of Space, to strengthen collaborative research activity between IIST and ISRO centres. It functions through a dedicated committee chaired by Shri Premdas M, Satish Dhawan Professor. ASRG facilitates the identification of joint research themes, helps in the preparation of project proposals, periodically reviews project progress, and promotes measures to ensure timely completion.
Most ISRO centres have constituted Link Units to enable effective coordination of ASRG activities. The Link Unit Committees are responsible for consolidating research themes from their respective centres and sharing them with ASRG for consideration to undertake new project proposals. The Link Units, independently or in coordination with ASRG, also conduct periodic reviews of ongoing projects and provide valuable guidance to the Principal Investigators.
The Empowered Overseeing Committee (EOC) serves as the apex body for ASRG and is chaired by Prof. Dipankar Banerjee, the Vice Chancellor of IIST. EOC includes all Link Unit Chairpersons as members, and is responsible for approving new projects, reviewing the progress of ongoing projects, and endorsing the closure of completed projects.
At present, ASRG is coordinating 32 projects, of which two have been completed, seven are nearing completion, and twenty-three are currently in progress. These projects are sponsored by eight ISRO centres: VSSC, LPSC, IISU, SAC, URSC, LEOS, ISTRAC, and HSFC. The research areas cover diverse themes, including combustion instability, two-phase flow in cryogenic fluids, thrusters, computational model development, satellite interference studies, bio astronautics, payloads, artificial intelligence, and machine learning applications, among others. Since 2022, IIST has received approximately ₹3.5 crore in research funding through the afore-mentioned collaborative research projects. Several of the ASRG projects that were initiated during 2021–2022 are now close to completion.
In this context, ASRG, IIST is organizing the “ASRG Workshop 2026” on 29 January 2026 at IIST. The above workshop plans to review the progress of ongoing projects, take feedback from the experiences of the ASRG investigators, and further expand collaborative research projects in new areas between IIST and ISRO centres. As part of this effort, ASRG is bringing out a souvenir that provides compilation of key technical details of all projects, with each project related detail presented in a dedicated page.
ASRG places on record its sincere thanks to the Chairman, ISRO; to all Directors of various ISRO centres; IIST management; IIST faculty members and scientists/engineers from ISRO centres, for their continued support, encouragement and valuable suggestions, which have significantly contributed in strengthening the collaborative research initiative between IIST and ISRO centres.
