CSIC (Spanish National Research Council), http://www.csic.es/, is the Spain’s largest public research institution, and ranks third among Europe’s largest research organization. CSIC is under the responsibility of Spain’s Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation, and plays a key role in scientific and technological policy in Spain and worldwide. According to its Statute (Article 4), CSIC has 4 main missions: (i) to foster multidisciplinary scientific and technological research, (ii) knowledge transfer to industry and society, (iii) education and training of scientific and technical staff and (iv) creation of Technology Based Companies.
CSIC has 10.940 employees, including 3.764 researchers. CSIC has 123 Institutes spread across the country and covering different areas of Science and Technology. 70 of them are fully-owned institutes and 53 are Joint Research Units in partnership with other Spanish universities or research institutions. CSIC has also a delegation in Brussels.
CSIC is a major player in the development of the European research area and therefore a significant contributor to the European integration process. Within the 7th Framework Programme CSIC has signed 723 actions (including 97 coordinated by CSIC and 47 ERC projects). As to the number of projects, CSIC is listed the 1st organisation in Spain and the 6th in Europe in the 7th Framework Programme, with a total FP7 contribution of over 263 million euros (E-CORDA). In June 2016, CSIC has obtained 203 projects in the first Work Programme with a total EU financial contribution of 88, 5 million euros.
The Centre for Automation and Robotics of CSIC (CSIC-CAR), http://www.car.upm-csic.es/, is the center responsible for the WeLASER project. The CSIC-CAR group has participated in many EC project (see below) and has managed four research Projects at European programmes as the coordinator: INCO-Copernicus Project 960054, ESPRIT 02/76100, GRD1-1999-11153 and RHEA FP7 N. 245986. The CSIC-CAR owns some facilities that will be essential for the project development such as (i) an electric/electronic workshop, with equipment for electronic cards design and manufacturing; (ii) a mechanical workshop, with equipment for both manufacturing and mounting robotic prototypes; (iii) a large laboratory for integration of heavy equipment and (iv) some fields for growing crops (see pictures below).
