The IASST was founded in 1979 by the Assam Science Society, which is the premier scientific academy of Assam. The Institute was inaugurated by the Nobel Laureate Prof. Dorothy Hodgkin on November 3, 1979. The main aims of the Institute are generation of infrastructure for carrying out high quality research in some selected areas of science & technology, enrichment of the culture of scientific research, both of which would lead to the all-round development of the State as well as of the North-Eastern region as a whole.

The IASST got itself registered as a Society in 1991 under the Societies Registration Act. In 1993, the Govt. of Assam allotted a plot of 20 acres at Paschim Boragaon in Greater Guwahati for building the campus of the Institute and have been providing an annual grants-in-aid for running the Institute. The Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India provided the necessary funds to construct the main Academic-cum-Administrative building. The IASST has now been taken over by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India as an Autonomous Institute since Mar 9, 2009.