Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas

The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the largest public institution in Spain dedicated to research and one of the most renowned of the European Research Area (ERA). It is ascribed to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities through the General Secretariat of Scientific Policy Coordination.

The Global Area LIFE is the largest and most diverse research organization in Life Sciences in Spain and enjoys great prestige among the European scientific community. Currently, the Global Area LIFE is made up of more than 6,600 people, 1,833 are research staff, who work in 1,330 groups, found in 62 research institutes located in all Spanish Autonomous Communities. An integrated vision of life science research allows establishing priority areas and designing new transversal action strategies on such important topics as sustainable development, climate change, precision and personalized medicine, food for the future or healthy aging, understanding that this activity converges and complements those developed in the Global Areas Society and Materia.

Within the Global Area LIFE, research in cellular and molecular biology and biomedicine occupies a central role. Structural biology, biophysics, regulation of gene expression and epigenetics, pathophysiology, cell biology, infectious and rare diseases, neurobiology, cancer, immunology, genomics and metagenomics, synthetic biology and bioinformatics are some of the disciplines to highlight in which our scientists develop activities of great impact and translational value.

Within the Agriculture sub-area, we work in the physiology, biochemistry, genomics and biotechnology of plants and animals. The priority in the rational use of water and edaphic resources is fundamental in the investigation of agricultural systems, as well as the generation of knowledge in plant and animal health in order to cope with existing pathologies and establish protection measures against emerging diseases.