Presentation
The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) is the research performing organization of the Spanish System for Science, Technology and Innovation. CSIC is the research organization in Spain with the greatest multidisciplinary potential. It undertakes challenges that are not available to other institutions, both for its size (more than 11,000 people) and for its distribution (it is present in almost all the Spanish Autonomous Communities). In order to carry out its mission, it has competences to carry out activities aimed at:
-Generation of knowledge through scientific and technical research.
-Transfer of research results, specially to boost and create technology-based enterprises.
-Expert advice provided to public and private institutions.
-Highly-qualified pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training.
-Promotion of scientific culture in society.
-Management of large facilities and unique scientific and technical infrastructures.
-Presence and representation in international bodies.
-Development of targeted research.
Global Areas
Research in CSIC extends in three Global Areas: Society (S), Life (V) and Materia (M), and four axes connecting them (SV, SM, VM, SVM), which allow to address interdisciplinary research, initiatives of excellence and knowledge transfer, and tackle frontier issues in different areas of knowledge. The synergy between the different centres allows CSIC to participate in new challenges and makes it a key player in international research with a recognized innovative character. The 120 institutes carry out basic and applied research at the service of the society focused on pioneering scientific developments.
The Interdisciplinary Thematic Platforms (PTIs), oriented to the resolution of great global challenges with high social and scientific impact, represent the CSIC new initiatives to exploit the capacity between the global areas and research groups working together and in coordination, as well as to promote proposals led by young researchers. In particular, in the field of cultural heritage the PTI-PAIS, Open Heritage: Research and Society, that addresses the great challenge of conservation, understanding and dissemination of tangible cultural heritage is active since 2019. PTI-PAIS draws on a more than twenty years-old history of interdisciplinary collaboration in heritage science at CSIC, formalized by first time in 2001 with the creation of the CSIC Thematic Network on Cultural and Historical Heritage (RTPHC).
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