Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar is a specialized public-health university in Gujarat and the first institution in India to receive university status with an exclusive public-health focus. Its origins lie in a 2007 memorandum of understanding between the Government of Gujarat and the Public Health Foundation of India to create an institute dedicated to strengthening health systems through education, training, research and policy work. Academic operations began in July 2008 from an interim location in Ahmedabad with the first Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Management cohort. The institute later moved into a permanent green campus in Gandhinagar. Gujarat granted it university status through the Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar Act, 2015, creating a statutory framework for degree education and research. The permanent campus was inaugurated in October 2016 and includes teaching, research and laboratory facilities designed for population-health work. IIPHG's academic and research profile spans public health, health administration, public-health nutrition, health economics and technology assessment, and doctoral research. Its projects address maternal and child health, nutrition, infectious diseases, One Health, environmental health, non-communicable diseases, mental health, ageing and health-systems questions. The university also undertakes training and policy-facing work for health professionals and government systems. Its institutional development therefore connects a government-PHFI partnership, professional public-health training and a research-intensive university model focused on population health. The campus in Gandhinagar was developed on land allocated with state support under the original partnership. The university combines degree programmes with applied research, executive training and public-health policy engagement. IIPHG is a specialized university focused on public health and health-systems development. Its institutional partnership began with a 2007 MoU between the Government of Gujarat and PHFI. The institute began academic operations in July 2008. Its first programme included in-service medical officers sponsored for public-health management training.