The National Research Council is a national research body with a wide ranging scientific competence which carries out activities in areas of priority interest for the promotion of science and technological progress in Italy.
Established in 1923 as a non-profit organization with the aim of representing Italy at the International Research Council in Brussels, the CNR acquired legal status in March 1945. In 1979, it was placed under the direct control of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and, by proxy, under the direction and supervision of the Minister for the Coordination of Scientific Research.
Since 1989, the CNR has been placed under the supervision of the Ministry for University and Scientific and Technological Research, while retaining its scientific, organizational and financial autonomy.
The CNR’s research activity is promoted and carried out through its 107 research institutes located throughout the country. The CNR aims at achieving its objectives through research programmes of strategic relevance both in a national and in an international context. Thus, it works within the framework of European cooperation and integration and through the collaboration of university research bodies and other public and private bodies, thereby ensuring the diffusion of the results obtained at a nation-wide level.