CENIEH is a public consortium co-financed in equal parts by the General State Administration and the Regional Government of Castilla y León, headquartered in Burgos.
CENIEH is responsible for managing and conserving the palaeontological and archaeological collections from the Atapuerca excavations and other similar national and international sites that reach agreements with CENIEH.
Its laboratories, which are considered essential infrastructures and confer its unique status as an ICTS, are organised into three areas::
- sedimentology and material characterisation area,
- geochronology area,
- collection, conservation and restoration área.