India is one of the founder members of Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) which consists of 23 member states and nine dialogue partners. The IORA Regional Centre for Science and Technology Transfer (IORA-RCSTT) functions under the authority of IORA secretariat and the IORA Council of Ministers. It has the status of an intergovernmental regional organization, with duties and privileges equivalent to those of a UN mission in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Considering the vast potential of medicinal plants in the member nations of IORA, the IORA RCSTT-Medicinal Plant Network was established. The aim of this network is to extend co-operation and share information and resources among IORA Member States.

In order to promote scientific and technical cooperation and collaboration in the field of medicinal plants, a MOU was signed between IORA-RCSTT and CSIR-CIMAP at IORA-RCSTT headquarters Tehran on February 24th, 2018. Through this cooperation, CSIR-CIMAP and IORA-RCSTT will promote exchange and cooperation of personnel, information, technology and business in the area of medicinal and aromatic plants. With the resolution towards achieving all claimed objectives, the IORA-RCSST centre on medicinal plants was inaugurated at CIMAP on 7th May 2018.

The role of CSIR-CIMAP as the coordinating centre is to develop cooperation and to support IORA member states and dialogue partners in the area of medicinal plants. The centre is striving to establish close link between scientists, researchers, institutes, farmers, industry, and other stakeholders for knowledge dissemination and equitable benefit sharing.

In current, the activities initiated by the centre are effectual in strengthening the existing research and methodologies at national and international level and are in favour of science and technology development, transfer, and commercialization among countries.