Spanish National Research Council

The Spanish National Research Council (, CSIC) is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. Its main objective is to develop and promote research that will help bring about scientific and technological progress, and it is prepared to collaborate with Spanish and foreign entities in order to achieve this aim. CSIC plays an important role in scientific and technological policy, since it encompasses an area that takes in everything from basic research to the transfer of knowledge to the productive sector. Its research is driven by its centres and institutes, which are spread across all the autonomous regions. CSIC has 6% of all the staff dedicated to research and development in Spain, and they generate approximately 20% of all scientific production in the country. It also manages a range of important facilities; the most complete and extensive network of specialist libraries, and also has joint research units. Significant latest research by CSIC is the Temperature and Winds for InSight (TWINS) module, which is a component of NASA's InSight Mars lander, which landed successfully on November 26, 2018. TWINS will monitor weather at the Mars landing site. Origins The CSIC was created in 1939 by the recently victorious Francoist regime from the assets of the Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios (JAE) (1907–1939), born within the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and inspired in the Krausist philosophy. The initial mandate of the CSIC was to restore the classical and Christian unity of the sciences that was destroyed in the 18th century ("la restauración de la clásica y cristiana unidad de las ciencias destruida en el siglo XVIII"). From its 1939 foundation to his 1966 death, its head was José María Albareda, one of the first members of the Opus Dei and a close friend of its founder, Josemaría Escrivá. José María Albareda was ordained a priest in 1959, and at his death was succeeded as head of CSIC by Manuel Lora-Tamayo, then the Education minister of Franco.