The Centre for Interdisciplinary Archaeological Research (CIAR), first of its kind in India, aims to create a state-of-the-art facility that brings archaeology and the sciences together in order to offer new perspectives that will deepen the study of the Indian past. It aims to do this through interdisciplinary field-based projects led by Ashoka faculty and students along with off-site laboratory work. Simultaneously, it seeks to introduce a pedagogy that draws upon both the sciences and the humanities for teaching courses on traditional and modern archaeology that will help impart field knowledge of archaeological sites and diverse landscapes of India.

CIAR aspires to inaugurate an era of exciting and successful cooperation among various categories of research workers in the university. The idea is faculty-driven and is a consequence of a sustained and serious conversations between historian-archaeologists and biologists. With the core emphasis on interdisciplinary research, the seed of this idea could only be planted at Ashoka which provides the ideal institutional space for an interface between archaeology and the sciences. CIAR represents true integration of high-quality research and education at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels. This is a novel platform that will meld the research interests of the humanities scholars with the science faculty with the primary goal of investigating and teaching the Indian past.