Research has always been an area of paramount importance to Manipal University. The importance increased tremendously after getting deemed university status. The result is that there has been a dramatic rise in the publications, doctoral degree awards and grants awarded by funding agencies. A cursory browse through PUBMED will show a steady rise in the number of publications in Life Sciences. For instance the number of PUBMED cited publications increased by over 30 per cent between 2005 to 2006 and 2006 to 2007. The increase has been nearly fourfold since acquiring the deemed university status in 1993

Manipal University, as a matter of policy, encourages research by faculty members and provides incentives for research output in the form of publications and patents. MU encourages teaching faculty to compete for research funding and rewards success in the form of academic allowances and research incentives. Adequate budgetary provisions are provided for research through capital allocations for the maintenance of animal facility, consumables, equipment etc. Experts, from reputed research groups, from all over the world, serve as adjunct faculty and play a significant role in promoting the scientific temper on the campus. Rs 1.5 crore was sanctioned to MIT in 2008 – 2009 towards funding innovation. Students of MIT routinely take up summer internship as a regular part of course work, with productive results. For instance, a five member student team from MIT recently won the prestigious Innovation Competition organised by GE’s largest R&D centre outside the US, namely the John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC) Bangalore. A total of 190 teams including all the IITs and NITs participated in the above event.

MIT also has interdisciplinary labs constituted under the Innovation Centre, where several research programmes in emerging areas such as Nanotechnology, Ad hoc wireless networks, nuclear engineering, VLSI design and Pattern recognition are being pursued. A collaborative project with Philips in the area of sustainable and eco friendly technology and tele- medicine at the BOP level is currently being pursued. MIT has collaborative links with several reputed overseas institutions such as Hochschule Bremen, Germany, Milwaukee School of Engineering USA, University of Leicester UK etc.

MCOPS, Manipal sends its second year PG students for collaborative research programmes which are carried out at various R&D centres situated all over the country. Often the research carried out by them becomes a part of the intellectual property of the company. Through such association, MU is able to provide excellent exposure to research in state-of-the-art research laboratories of this country. MCOPS also has ongoing programmes in Novel Drug Delivery Systems, Formulation Development and Preclinical Screening of Drug candidates. The TIFAC CORE programme in Pharmacogenomics envisages the development of personalised medicine. The MLSC also engages its laboratories in rendering diagnostic advice to the Kasturba Hospital in complicated cases. MCOPS has signed a MoU with the University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA, under which a candidate registered for PhD under MU will receive training and research guidance in the Laramie campus, leading to a split-campus PhD. MCOPS has also been awarded a 1.3 crore DST research grant in collaboration with the US Vitamins, Ltd Mumbai for the development of biodegradable sustained release formulations.

The Manipal Life Science Centre has a dedicated research team and is currently undertaking several research projects funded by DBT, DST, etc. MLSC is also linked to several international research institutions such as Wistar Institute Philadelphia, University of Queensland etc. The department of Laser Spectroscopy is engaged in developing innovative diagnostic methods for the early detection of malignancy. A patient-friendly devise for the early detection of malignancy has been developed in collaboration with M/s Philips. MLSC conducts the Annual National Science Day fair, in which many schools participate.