The main purpose of the Institute is to perform basic research and applied developments regarding problems in information transmission, distribution, processing and control in engineering and living systems.

The main scientific activities of the Institute are following:

• the theory of information transmission and protection;
• the mathematical theory of information and control, multi-component random systems;
• information and communication technologies and their application in complex systems and networks;
• information processes in living systems, and bioinformatics;
• computational linguistics.

The Institute has united scientists from different fields and is able to conduct basic and applied research almost in all areas related to the information transmission problems in technical, social and living systems. Particularly it allows the Institute to conduct multidisciplinary researches, combining the expertise of mathematicians, biologists and linguists.

The Institute has formed a strong team of highly qualified scientists: mathematicians, physicists, biologists, engineers and linguists - who collaboratively perform basic researches on a wide range of scientific problems.

Though currently the Institute numbers about 300 researchers (half of them - young researches up to 40), the results of its scientific activity are very important and highly regarded in our country and abroad.

The Institute includes four academicians, two corresponding members of RAS, 75 PhDs and 150 candidates of sciences. Three members of the Institute were awarded the Fields medal, the highest prize in mathematics.

1978 – Grigory Alexandrovich Margulis;

1998 – Maxim Lvovich Kontsevich

2006 – Andrei Yurevich Okunkov

For the first time this medal was awarded in 1936, and since then it was granted only to 52 scientists (including 7 scientists in our country).

The Institute’s scientists are members of several foreign academies of the leading countries of the world, a lot of Institute’s experts received prestigious prizes and awards, granted by the RAS as well as foreign academies, universities and organizations.

Scientists and fellows of the Institute carry out applied researches according to both plans of the RAS and under contracts concluded with various Ministeries and institutions of the RF and foreign companies.

Practical developments of the Institute’s experts are awarded by more than 50 diplomas, medals and prizes of the largest national and international exhibitions held in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Geneva, Brussels and other cities.

Developments of the Institute are currently commercially produced by national enterprises.

In 2006 the General meeting of researchers formed five professional associations (according to the main directions of scientific activities) in order to bring together on a voluntary basis professionals to facilitate the Academic Council of the Institute in creating the research agenda, conducting expert examinations of research papers and solving current issues.

The Institute is co-founder of three scientific journals – “Problems of Information Transmission”, “Automation and Remote Control” and the electronic journal “Information processes”.

The first two journals are fully translated in English and distributed worldwide by publishing house “Springer”. The best articles from the electronic journal are also translated in English and published in the journal «Automation and Remote Control».

The Institute has a post-graduate and doctoral studies. There is also a special council to grant the degrees of doctor and candidate of sciences.