A Spanish state agency attached to the Ministry of Science, Innovation. Its main mission is to develop and promote research to contribute to scientific and technological progress, for the purpose of which it is open to working together with Spanish and foreign entities. According to the SIR World Report 2012 classification, it is the largest public institution in Spain dedicated to research having reached ninth place in the world rankings: Global Ranking (produced by SCImago Institutions Rankings) and 16th in 2017.

The CSIC took part in the initial Framework Programme of the European Framework Programmes for Research in 1984. This collaborative work has been uninterrupted and expanded through to today in Horizon 2020. The CSIC enjoys an outstanding position at European level for the public research bodies, as it usually is within the top five for the number of awarded projects. These same results make it the leading Spanish body in terms of project numbers, economic return and number of coordinated activities. 

The main goal of the Institute of Language, Literature and Anthropology
(ILLA) is research of Hispanic cultural heritage in its triple dimension: anthropological, linguistic and literary. Accordingly, its researchers publish internationally-renowned journals in their scientific circles and conduct intensive training activity through a range of its own master’s degrees while transferring specialist knowledge to society.