The Institute for mobile suit research and development was founded by the Earth Sphere Alliance to be a sceince academy to teach the next generation from the early years of the Universal Era. It stayed that way for a few years, but when the first war seemed that it would never end, they had instead seperated themeselves from the Earth government and established themeselves as a neutral military academy, hiring out the soldiers taught there as mercanaries.

The soldiers that came from the I.M.S.R.D were superbly trained, more combat adept than any other faction the world had seen at that point. So good where they, they had recieved the nick-name "Elites", which has become the official name of the mercanaries that operate from the I.M.S.R.D.

It should be noted that the soldiers of the I.M.S.R.D have obtained such a degree of profesionalism that when hired to opposing sides they have no quelms in fighting each other, and in the next mission fighting alongside one another.