Chennai: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has launched the IIT Madras Global Research Foundation (IITM Global) to expand its research, innovation, and education ecosystem across international geographies.
Through IITM Global, the institute is strengthening its engagement in Southeast Asia by forming strategic partnerships in Malaysia aimed at advancing academic collaboration, semiconductor research, and innovation-driven entrepreneurship.
The newly established IITM Global initiative was launched by Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India, at IIT Madras on 2 January 2026.
The initiative aligns with IIT Madras’s long-term vision of becoming the world’s first multinational university by building a globally connected ecosystem for education, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
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IITM Global Expands Academic and Innovation Partnerships in Malaysia
Addressing the launch event, Dr S Jaishankar said, “An IIT Madras Campus in Tanzania is a way by which Indian Foreign Policy has leveraged the capabilities of an Institution here to make a huge impact. In ten years from now, think how many Students of Africa would have passed through its portals.
We are a human resource power and we should play to our strengths. We now have the capability to start doing so. When institutions of excellence in the country start going abroad, the business of foreign policy gains a huge addition to our arsenal. This is something very transformational.”
As part of its Malaysia-focused expansion, IIT Madras has partnered with the Advanced Semiconductor Academy of Malaysia (ASEM) to strengthen academic cooperation and innovation engagement in the region.
The collaboration will include joint certification programmes, student exchange opportunities, faculty mobility initiatives, and skilling programmes aligned with regional requirements, particularly in semiconductors and semiconductor design.
The partnership also envisions establishing an Overseas Research Centre in Malaysia to support deep-tech startups seeking expansion into Southeast Asian markets.
In addition, IITM Global has formalised a collaboration framework with Aisling Group to build synergies that support the internationalisation of Indian innovation, technology, and startups.
The collaboration will focus on startup scaling support, skilling and short-term certification programmes, collaborative research initiatives, and intellectual property and technology transfer.
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Conceived as a strategic and scalable “plug-and-play” global platform, IITM Global aims to enable researchers, students, startups, and industry partners to access international markets, capital networks, and collaborative research opportunities.
Widely recognised as India’s top-ranked higher-education institution, IIT Madras holds the #1 Overall and #1 Engineering Institute positions in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The institute is ranked #180 in the QS World University Rankings and #56 in the QS Asian University Rankings.
IIT Madras’s research ecosystem includes 18 academic departments, 15 Centres of Excellence, 23 research centres, and nearly 100 advanced laboratories, supported by more than 650 faculty members and over 10,000 students.
