Institute of Spain

Instituto de España

The Royal Academies, born out of the spirit of the Enlightenment and protected by the Crown, began to be established in Spain in the eighteenth century as centres for the cultivation of knowledge and the dissemination of knowledge. They have been and continue to be the entities that represent excellence in the various fields of sciences, arts and humanities. Its essential values are, on the one hand, the category of its members, in whom the highest intellectual and scientific merits are found, and, on the other, its stability and independence from economic or political interests.

At this time, as much or more than in the past centuries, these values of excellence and independence justify that the Royal Academies, which are under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King, as established in article 62.j) of the Constitution, continue to be centres of thought, culture and advanced, free and calm research, which provide light on the complex problems of our time.

The Institute of Spain, corporation of public law regulated in Royal Decree 1160/2010, of 17 September, brings together the Royal Academies of national scope for the coordination of the functions they must exercise in common. The following are part of the Institute of Spain:

The Institute of Spain is led by a Governing Board, composed of the people who occupy the Presidency or Direction of each of the integrated Royal Academies. The Presidency shall be held, on an annual rotating basis, by one of its members.

As established in the Seventh Additional Provision of Royal Decree 404/2020, of February 25, which develops the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, this Ministry, through its Subsecretariat, is responsible for the administrative relationship with the Royal Academies and Academies of national scope.

Links