The original Cuban Academy of Sciences was founded under the Spanish Crown on 19 May 1861 as the Royal Academy of Medical, Physical, and Natural Sciences of Havana. In 1902 the Academy retained its structure and organization but dropped from its name the word “Royal”, as it started acting in a national republican environment. In 1962 a National Commission for the Academy of Sciences of Cuba was created, endowed for the first time with a national scope. In 1980 the Academy was promoted to the rank of Ministry, centrally in charge of all of science and technology activity. In 1994, the administrative structure of the Academy merged with the National Commission for Environment and Natural Resources, and the Executive Secretariat for Nuclear Affairs, to form the Ministry for Science, Technology, and Environment.
In April 1996, the Academy of Sciences of Cuba (Academia de Ciencias de Cuba) was established by law in its present character as an official institution of the Cuban State, with an independent and consultative nature in matters of science.
The aims of the Academy of Sciences are to foster Cuban science, the dissemination of national and universal scientific progress, the recognition of prestige for scientific research of excellence, to raise ethical professional standards and social recognition of science, and to strengthen links of scientists and their organizations, amongst themselves, with society at large, and with the rest of the world.
The Academy has a professional staff that supports the Governing Bodies in the fulfilment of their tasks. The Academicians belong to the Academy’s Sections, which are organized according to groups of scientific disciplines: Biomedical Sciences, Agricultural and Fisheries Sciences, Technical Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, and Natural and Exact Sciences.