With a view to develop a Centre of excellence for carrying out long term research on fundamental problems limiting cotton production and also to provide basic support to location specific applied research work being carried out in a network of cotton research centres in the country through the AICCIP system, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research has established the Central Institute for Cotton Research at Nagpur in April, 1976. 

The erstwhile Regional Station of lARl at Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) became a part of CICR simultaneously to cater to the needs of southern cotton zone. In the year 1985, the IARI Regional Station at Sirsa (Haryana) was transferred to CICR as a regional centre for the northern irrigated cotton zone.

CICR's mandate: * To conduct basic and strategic research on cotton to improve yield, fibre quality and by products * To create new genetic variability for location specific adoption in cotton-based cropping systems * To Collect, conserve, evaluate and cataloguing of Cotton germplasm * Development of appropriate farming/cropping system for different cotton growing zones and their effective soil fertility management * Development of effective and efficient disease and pest management strategies * To coordinate network research with state agencies * To assist in transfer of modern cotton production technology to various user agencies * To extend consultancy and links with international agencies to accomplish the above mandate

Vission

Improving production and quality of Indian Cotton (including the development of transgenics resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses) with reduced cost to make cotton production cost effective and competitive in the national and global market. 

Mission

To develop economically viable and eco-friendly production and protection technologies for enhancing quality cotton production by 2-3% every year on a sustainable basis for the next fifteen years (till 2025).