Research is an integral and important part of any higher education system. BITS Pilani actively promotes research among its staff and students. Besides basic research, which is the backbone of any applied research, the Institute also gives adequate importance and support to applied research.

Research at BITS relies on the motivated intellectual manpower pool available among its staff and students. Students undertake research projects as a component of their education program itself. Teachers conduct research as an integral part of their responsibilities since this enables them to assimilate and disseminate knowledge as well as generate new knowledge. Besides this, BITS has devised innovative schemes to enable professionals at large to conduct research at their place of work and simultaneously work for the PhD degree of the Institute.

At BITS Pilani, the faculty are encouraged to publish their findings in reputed journals and present papers at conferences. Support is given to participate in national and international conferences and thereby network with experts from India and abroad. Recently, the Institute has taken steps to provide support to faculty to file for patents if the research is likely to fructify in commercially viable products or processes. During the last 5 years, BITS has seen healthy growth in the amount of funding received from different agencies. While most of these are from the government sector, the Institute through its existing collaboration with industries is trying to involve the corporate sector in funding research projects.