International activity

The National Research Council of Italy (CNR) has always paid special attention to international activity which has been for years one of its main features representing a fundamental aspect of the transformation that CNR is pursuing in order to properly face Third Millennium's challenges on research and technological development.

As of its birth in 1923, CNR was called to represent Italy within the International Research Council (IRC) and it was asked, the same year, to participate in IRC first meeting held in Brussels.

Despite the various restructurings and transformations, CNR's identity as a national multidisciplinary research institution remained unchanged throughout the past 80 years. The Council has always represented a significant presence and an important benchmark for the whole national and international scientific community, a source of wide range and qualified expertise, essential for the growth of the national scientific system’s competitiveness and for the creation of a review system able to assess the Italian Research performance according to the international evaluation criteria. In designing its most recent restructuring, CNR's Central Administration decided to set up two Divisions, both in charge of working on international issues:

• Unit for European Relations
• Unit for International Relations