Research activities at Birla Institute of Technology & Science, BITS Pilani, encompass work conducted by a large number of students and faculty at all levels in the three-tier structure of the educational programme. In the Doctoral programme a large number of PhD students, located on-campus as well as off-campus, are engaged in research on various cutting-edge science and technology topics. The Institute's linkages with industries, R&D Centres and other institutions in the country and abroad have given a further boost to the research activities of the Institute.

BITS Pilani relies on the motivated intellectual manpower pool available among its faculty and students while it carries out world-class research. Faculty conduct research as an integral part of their responsibilities in the Institute which enables them to assimilate and disseminate the knowledge in addition to generating new knowledge. Furthermore, BITS has devised innovative schemes to enable professionals-at-large to conduct research at their place of work while also working simultaneously towards a PhD degree of the Institute.

Over the past five years, BITS Pilani has aggressively pursued an agenda for research and innovation, which includes (i) expansion of academic research conducted at all three tiers of its education programme, i.e. First Degree, Higher Degree and PhD and (b) innovation and entrepreneurship through sponsored research and consulting. BITS Pilani has taken several initiatives to support and cultivate a research environment at all four of its campuses, viz., Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad and Dubai.

BITS Pilani has demonstrated a satisfactory growth in research at all three tiers of education.

• The number of PhD degrees awarded has witnessed an increase from 54 in 2014 to 195 degrees awarded in the year 2023.
• Dissertation projects by Higher Degree students have grown from 61 to 1262 cumulatively, since 2010.
• Number of thesis projects completed by First Degree students has increased from 730 in 2017 to 818 in 2023.
•  Number of publications (SCOPUS indexed) has increased from 1223 in 2018 to 2619 in 2023 with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.45%.
•  The C-index (Average citations/paper) has increased from 8.25 in 2017 to 14.47 in 2023 with a CAGR of 9.81%.
• Number of publications (SCOPUS indexed) with international co-authors has increased from 215 in 2018 to 665 in 2023 with a CAGR of 25.33%.