Established | 1958 |
Location | Buenos Aires, Argentina |
Budget 2011 | US$400 million[1] |
Address | Sarmiento 440 Buenos Aires Argentina |
Website | http://www.conicet.gov.ar/ |
The National Scientific and Technical Research Council (Spanish: Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, CONICET) is an Argentine government agency which directs and co-ordinates most of the scientific and technical research done in universities and institutes.
It was established on 5 February 1958 by a decree of the national government. Its first director was Medicine Nobel Prize Bernardo A. Houssay.
Governed by a board independent from the federal government, it funds scientific research in three basic ways. Firstly, it gives grants for collective work to research teams of well-recognized scientists of every discipline, including social sciences and the humanities. Secondly, it has a roll of 6,500 researchers and 2,500 technicians as employees in different categories, from investigador asistente (assistant researcher) to investigador principal (main researcher). Thirdly, it grants scolarships for doctoral and post-doctoral studies to 8,500 young researches from Argentina and other countries.