National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB – CSIC)

A Severo Ochoa center since 2013

The National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB) was created in 1992 as an institute of the CSIC, with a mandate to lead research in emerging areas of biotechnology. 

Over its 25 years of existence, the centre’s objective has evolved to development of research that addresses four of the major challenges to today’s society:  infectious diseases, inflammatory processes and cancer, sustainable food production, and environmental pollution.

With more than 600 workers and 70 research groups, the CNB is one of the largest centres in the CSIC and in Spain.  The multidisciplinary composition of its laboratories –in which experts work together in molecular and cell biology, image analysis, bioinformatics, synthetic biology, genomics and proteomics—  enhances the quality of their research and enables the development of new technologies for health, the environment and agriculture.

A fluid relationship with pacesetters in the biotechnology industry, promoted by the centre’s innovation office, together with a constant endeavour to maintain open channels of communication with society, helps to reflect the science implemented in the CNB laboratories to the business sector and society.

Key Facts of National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB – CSIC)

80% Q1 publications
Percentage of publications in the top 25 % journals.
32% D1 Articles
Percentage of articles ranked in the top 10 % of the field.
50% External Financing
Percentage of competitive plus private funding to centre's budget.
44% CE and International Projects
Percentage of competitive research projects funded by international agencies.
Among many other benefits, the flexibility of SO funding has boosted our center’s performance in two key aspects. First, we could use SO funding to hire highly qualified key personnel for our core facilities and scientific management units whose contracts could not be charged on any other research projects. And, second, SO funding enabled us to compete for big grants that require substantial cofounding efforts from the awardee, allowing us to make strategic investments such as the recent acquisition of leading edge equipment for cryo-electron and super-resolution microscopy for an advanced bioimaging platform that is unique in Spain.
Mario Mellado
Director at CNB