Schaeffler India Funds High-Performance Computing Facility at IISc Bengaluru

Schaeffler India has set up a computational research facility at the Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID) on the campus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru. The facility, announced on May 13, 2026, is funded through Schaeffler India's CSR programme, HOPE, and is designed to support large-scale simulations, data-intensive modelling, and advanced analytics across research domains including materials science, energy systems, and sustainable mobility.

Alongside the infrastructure investment, Schaeffler India has signed a Master Research Agreement (MRA) with IISc, which is intended to serve as the formal basis for multiple joint research projects going forward. The agreement signals a shift from ad hoc engagement to a structured, long-term collaboration between the company and the institution.

The physical infrastructure includes dedicated lab space, in-rack cooling systems, power backup, and high-performance hybrid computing workstations and clusters. The long-term target is a system with a peak performance of around 32 petaflops, drawing on a combination of CPUs and GPUs. Such capacity would place the facility among the more capable academic computing environments in the country, enabling the kind of computationally intensive modelling that has traditionally required access to national or international supercomputing resources.

The facility is expected to be used by IISc faculty, PhD scholars, postgraduate and undergraduate students, postdoctoral researchers, FSID-incubated startups, and industry partners involved in R&D collaborations. MSMEs and external startups seeking access to digital infrastructure would also be eligible to use the facility, broadening its reach beyond the immediate academic community.

Harsha Kadam, Managing Director and CEO of Schaeffler India, framed the investment within the company's wider approach to research and workforce development. "At Schaeffler India, we are committed to building skills and manufacturing excellence rooted in India's unique strengths, aligned with its needs, and geared towards creating lasting value," he said. "Such efforts depend on strong academia-industry collaboration, with institutions like IISc playing a critical role in equipping researchers with the right tools and expertise." Kadam added that Schaeffler India and IISc have a pipeline of joint projects already in place, with teams aligned to begin execution.

Sai Gautam Gopalakrishnan, Associate Professor of Materials Engineering at IISc, said the facility would benefit research groups, startups incubated at FSID, and industry collaborators alike. He described the initiative as oriented toward advancing "digitalization, automation, and acceleration of research" within the IISc ecosystem, and expressed an expectation of increasing collaborative activity with Schaeffler India over the long term.

Prof. B. Gurumoorthy, Director of FSID, described the collaboration as a significant step for the foundation's research support capacity. "This collaboration with Schaeffler India marks an important step in enhancing FSID's capabilities in high-end simulations, data-intensive research, and next-generation technology development," he said, adding that the partnership illustrated how industry-academia engagements could produce outcomes with real-world relevance.

FSID serves as the primary interface between IISc and the external research and industry community, facilitating collaborative projects, hosting incubated startups, and managing research partnerships. Its role has grown in recent years as IISc has sought to deepen ties with industry partners across sectors including manufacturing, energy, and technology.

The investment by Schaeffler India reflects a pattern seen more broadly in Indian higher education, where private sector companies are increasingly directing CSR funds toward research infrastructure rather than solely toward social welfare schemes. For institutions like IISc, such contributions can supplement public funding and enable facilities that might otherwise take years to procure through government budgets.

IISc, established in 1909 and headquartered in Bengaluru, is one of India's foremost research universities, with particular strength in engineering, physical sciences, and interdisciplinary research. It consistently ranks among the top institutions in national and global university rankings.

Schaeffler India operates five manufacturing plants across Talegaon, Savli, Maneja, Hosur, and Shoolagiri, along with three R&D centres and five sales offices. The company has been present in India for over 60 years and employs more than 3,800 people. The parent Schaeffler Group, headquartered in Germany, has been in operation for 80 years, employs around 110,000 people, and maintains more than 250 locations across 55 countries. The group's product portfolio spans bearing solutions, linear guidance systems, electric mobility components, and monitoring and repair services.