Since 2001 the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MoHE) has been sponsoring the organisation of a research exposition to exhibit the inventions, innovations and other outcomes emanating from research undertaken by all the public institutions of higher learning in the country. The inaugural Expo was held in 2001 and was co-organised by MoHE in collaboration with the National University of Malaysia. This was followed in 2003 with Universiti Putra Malaysia as co-organiser and in 2005 with the University of Technology, Malaysia. Going by rotation, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been identified to work alongside MoHE in organising the activities for the planned EXPO in 2007. 

In this context, MoHE has agreed to provide a subsidy to support this EXPO. Apart from this, MoHE has requested that the expo be rebranded to give it a higher profile through the involvement of all public as well as private institutions of higher learning in Malaysia and also to invite participation from appropriate overseas universities/institutes. 

In the light of this development, the forthcoming event be renamed as the International Exposition of Research and Inventions of Institutions of Higher Learning 2007 (using the acronym based on its title in Bahasa Malaysia).