India is one of the founder members of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), consisting of 23 member states and 12 dialogue partners. The IORA Regional Centre for Science and Technology Transfer (IORA-RCSTT) functions under the authority of the IORA secretariat and the IORA Council of Ministers. It is an intergovernmental regional organisation, 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. This network aims to extend cooperation and share information and resources among IORA Member States.
To promote scientific and technical cooperation in the field of medicinal plants, an MoU was signed between IORA-RCSTT and CSIR-CIMAP at the IORA-RCSTT headquarters in Tehran, Iran, on February 24, 2018. Through this collaboration, CSIR-CIMAP and IORA-RCSTT aim to foster the exchange and cooperation of personnel, information, technology, and business in the area of medicinal and aromatic plants. In alignment with these objectives, the IORA-RCSTT Coordination Centre on Medicinal Plants was inaugurated at CSIR-CIMAP on May 7, 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 the national and international levels and are in favour of science and technology development, technology transfer and commercialization among countries.
Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen
China, Egypt, European Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States.
