Biotechnology has tremendous potential to improve food securities in developing countries. Realizing the great potential of biotechnology in the field of animal health and production, the National Biotechnology Centre (NBC) was established at IVRI during VII five year plan by ICAR in collaboration with Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India and UNDP/FAO in the year 1986 with the emphasis on post-graduate education and training in biotechnology and conducting research in identified areas of immunobiotechnology. Funding from various sources, e.g., ICAR, UNDP/FAO, INDO-US, ILTP (INDO-USSR), ODA (INDO-SWISS), Indo-UK and others helped in creating adequate infrastructural facilities to undertake research in frontier areas of animal biotechnology such as genetic engineering, hybridoma technology, peptide synthesis, protein engineering etc.
In recognition of the contributions made by this centre, ICAR conferred the status of the Centre of Advanced Studies (CAS) in Animal Biotechnology. Later, the National Biotechnology Centre was identified as Centre of Excellence in Veterinary Biotechnology by ICAR under the National Agriculture Technology Programme (NATP) funded by World Bank. It was later designated as Division of Veterinary Biotechnology.
Scientists and students of the division are recognized with number of prestigious awards and fellowships such as BOYSCAST Fellowship, Endeavour Fellowship, Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship, DBT Overseas Fellowship, DST-SERB Postdoctoral Fellowship, and Lal Bahadur Shastri Award and Jawaharlal Nehru Award.