CSIC, the Spanish National Research Council, is the largest public institution dedicated to research in Spain and the third largest in Europe. It is an autonomous multi-sectoral, multi-disciplinary public research composed of around 110 research institutes in all research areas with a total staff of more than 15000 employees. Four CSIC institutes are involved, the Barcelona Microelectronics Institute of the National Microelectronics Center (IMB-CNM), the Materials Science Institute of Barcelona, (ICMAB), the Materials Science Institute of Madrid, (ICMM), and the Institute of Optics (IO). The two Barcelona institutes are in the UAB Bellaterra Campus, and so, co-located with ALBA synchrotron.

IMB-CNM hosts near 100 researchers, and 70 research engineers and technicians. It is arranged in eight different research groups doing technology-intensive science with micro and nanotechnologies.

ICMAB deals with research in Advanced Functional Materials with a total of >200 researchers. Its Strategic Research Program face clean and secure energy, smart and sustainable electronics and smart nanomedicine.

ICMM hosts more than 400 researchers and its research lines cover all aspects of materials science from fundamentals to applications, both from experimental and theoretical approaches.

IO is dedicated to advancing the frontiers of optics and photonics, hosting 70 researchers and 35 technicians. It is arranged in seven research groups covering every aspect of Optics and Photonics.