Bhubaneswar, Dec. 27: The annual National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) for admission to the National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) will be held on May 27 next year.

Apart from the National Institute of Science Education and Research (Niser) in Bhubaneswar, the Centre of Excellence in Basic Sciences at the Mumbai University also accepts NEST scores. Online registrations for this test will start on January 2 and will continue till March 6. Admit cards can be downloaded till April 14. The NEST results will be announced on June 16.

NEST is a compulsory test for admission to the five-year integrated MSc programmes in branches of basic sciences, such as biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics, at Niser Bhubaneswar. Both Niser and the Mumbai University centre are institutions established by the Union government's department of atomic energy in 2007. Niser is an off-campus centre of the Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) and its academic programmes are affiliated to the HBNI.

The institutes started operating with the mandate to provide high-quality teaching in basic sciences by a faculty of distinguished scientists embedded in a research environment.

They also aim to create a national pool of scientists ready to take up research challenges in the frontiers of basic and applied sciences.

For the integrated MSc programmes of 2017-22, the total number of seats at Niser and the Mumbai University centre for excellence in basic sciences are 172 and 47 respectively. For Niser and the centre, the seat break-ups are 85 and 23 (for general candidates), two and two (for the students of Jammu and Kashmir), 46 and 12 (OBC), 26 and seven (SC), 13 and three (ST), five and one (for students belonging to other categories), respectively.

Candidates seeking admission to Niser and the department of atomic energy centre for excellence in basic sciences for the integrated MSc programme 2017-22 should be from regular science stream only and preferably should have any combination of three subjects among biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics in classes XI and XII.

"The NEST 2017 will be conducted at 60 urban centres (major towns or cities) all over India. The successful candidates will be asked to take part in a counselling process and the admission will strictly be according to the merit list," said a Niser official.