PALS & TISS-SVE: Bridging Life Sciences Education and Industry Through AI

India's pharmaceutical and life sciences sector employs over 2.5 million people and generates $50 billion in annual export revenue. It is the world's largest supplier of generic medicines and a growing force in biologics, contract research, and clinical trials. Yet the sector faces an acute and widening skills gap at the intersection of domain expertise and digital capability.

A medicinal chemist trained in traditional synthesis methods is less valuable to a pharma company deploying AI-driven drug design than one who understands molecular AI models, can interpret model outputs critically, and knows how to collaborate with data scientists to translate experimental data into training signal. This does not mean every chemist must become a machine learning engineer — but it does mean that life sciences professionals who are AI-literate will command a structural premium in the labour market and be far more effective in their roles.

PALS — the Pragmatiq AI-for-Life-Sciences programme — is a 16-week intensive curriculum designed for working life sciences professionals with 2 to 10 years of industry experience. The programme covers four domains:

Foundations of AI and machine learning in the life sciences context — no prior programming experience required, but participants leave with working Python fluency and an understanding of model evaluation.

Molecular AI and drug discovery — generative models, property prediction, structure-activity relationships, and how these tools integrate into existing R&D workflows.

Clinical data intelligence — natural language processing for clinical notes, electronic health record analysis, clinical trial design optimisation, and regulatory considerations for AI-assisted clinical decision-making.

Agri and environmental life sciences — applications of AI in crop science, genomics, environmental monitoring, and sustainable agriculture — increasingly relevant as life sciences companies expand into food and environmental sectors.

Pragmatiq's industry expertise in AI and life sciences needed an academic partner with the institutional credibility to make PALS credentials meaningful in the Indian labour market. We found that partner in the School of Vocational Education at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS-SVE).

TISS is one of India's premier social science research universities, with a 85-year history and deep relationships with government, industry, and civil society. TISS-SVE specifically focuses on applied, vocational, and continuing education — making it the natural home for a programme designed to upskill working professionals rather than train fresh graduates.

The partnership means that PALS graduates receive a jointly awarded certificate from TISS-SVE and Pragmatiq — a credential that carries academic weight alongside industry relevance. It also means that our curriculum is subject to TISS's academic review processes, ensuring rigour and independence from commercial interests.

The first PALS cohort graduated in March 2024; the second in July 2024. Across 620 graduates from these two cohorts:

— 89% are employed in roles that explicitly require AI skills, either in their existing organisations (which upskilled them through the programme) or in new positions. — Average salary increase for participants who changed roles: 34% — 7 graduates have co-authored papers with their employer's research teams based on projects completed during the programme — 3 graduates have founded startups in life sciences AI

We are expanding PALS to an online-first format in 2025, enabling participation from professionals across South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa — geographies where life sciences industries are growing rapidly but AI upskilling infrastructure remains limited. Our goal is 5,000 graduates annually by 2027.