The Program for the Archiving of Science and Technology (PAST) is a flagship program of the Archives at NCBS aimed at digital preservation of, and enabling digital access to, at-risk archival material. It is a 12-month program for archival appraisal, standards-compliant archival description, digitization and digital preservation, and mirroring of archival data at the Archives at NCBS. PAST features year-long training, funding support, expert inputs and guidelines, skill development exercises, and more.

Eight projects participated in PAST Cohort #1 (2025−26), resulting in 26 collections. Project catalogues and digital assets were made accessible to the public in February 2026 and are compiled here.

The Archives at NCBS is pleased to announce the application process for the second cohort of PAST. We invite applications for projects to enable digital access to archival material that are rare, endangered, of archival value, and related to the history of science and technology in contemporary India (approximately between 1850 and 2000). The program focuses on under-represented and marginalised histories in science-technology-engineering-mathematics/medicine (STEM). Each project should typically outline names for three roles: 

• An individual lead applicant (referred to as ​“Lead Applicant”) who is an Indian citizen.
• A Host Organisation, legally registered in India, to collaborate with for archiving and digitization for collections identified
• An archival source for the material (referred to as ​“Source”), which could also be the host organisation

For more information click here