The establishment of All India Coordinated Research Project on Oilseeds (AICORPO) in April, 1967 based on the recommendations of a sub-committee appointed by the Government of India was the most significant event in the history of oilseeds research in India. The project had its beginning with one Project Coordinator to coordinate and monitor the research programmes of groundnut, rapeseed-mustard, sesame, linseed and castor at 32 research centres.

Later during 1972, safflower, sunflower and niger were brought under the umbrella of AICORPO and the number of research centres was increased to 40. Realizing the need for a national institute on oilseeds, the AICORPO was elevated to the status of Directorate of Oilseeds Research (DOR) on August 1, 1977 with a Project Director as its administrative head and seven Project Coordinators for these oilseed crops. Subsequently, groundnut and rapeseed-mustard were delinked from the Directorate with the establishment of National Research Centre for each of these crops during 1979 and 1993, respectively.

In 2000, the AICRP on Sesame and Niger and AICRP on Linseed were separated from the administrative control of DOR. The DOR was entrusted with the responsibility to plan, coordinate and execute the research programmes to augment the production and productivity of sunflower, safflower and castor crops in the country through All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Oilseeds at 29 locations across 14 states.

The DOR was upgraded to ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (ICAR-IIOR) w.e.f. February 3, 2015 as per the approval of XII Plan EFC. During 2020, the Project Coordination (PC) Unit of AICRP on Linseed was shifted to ICAR-IIOR from ICAR-IIPR, Kanpur as per the recommendations of ICAR, New Delhi. Currently, ICAR-IIOR coordinates the AICRP on Oilseeds (Castor, Sunflower, Safflower and Linseed) operating at 40 locations across 21 states. The ICAR-IIOR is a premier national institute under the aegis of Crop Science Division of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi.