The Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) Foundation was created in 1999, as the fruit of an institutional collaboration between the Education and Industry Departments of the Basque Government, the University of the Basque Country, the Diputación Foral of Gipuzkoa, the Town Hall of Donostia and the Kutxa savings bank. Iberdrola also took part in the project between 2000-2003. In 2004 Naturcorp Multiservicios joined the project, followed by Telefónica in 2005.
The DIPC was born as an intellectual center, whose primary aim is that of promoting and calalyzing the development of highest level basic research in material science. Since its beginnings, the DIPC has been an open institution, bound to the University of the Basque Country, and serving a purpose of internationalization of the basic science in the Basque Country, in physics and material science.