In 1923, the activities of the CNR, an international and national reference point for scientific research, began. Vito Volterra was its founder and first president. After him, the Mussolini government appointed Guglielmo Marconi, a Nobel Prize winner, as well as other fundamental figures in the history of Italian scientific research, such as Giulio Natta, Renato Dulbecco and Rita Levi Montalcini: these are just a few names in a very long list of personalities, who were and are today the pivot of research in Italy and international reference points.
In the CNR, scientific research thrives on a large and outstanding number of researchers in the sign of collaboration and innovation.

The CNR has another vital record compared to its European counterparts. In 1963, it sanctioned at the institutional level the need to overcome the divide between the two cultures by fully incorporating the humanities into scientific research and the broader system of public research, where the CNR already played an essential role. The network of humanities institutes was consolidated over time in highly specialised fields but also established new synergies between the humanities and the so-called ‘hard’ sciences.
From the 1980s to the present day, 2023, research has intensified in the field of the histories of the various sciences, highlighting Italy’s historical role in European scientific culture and the interconnections between different areas of knowledge and between these and the society that expresses them. Lastly, from its foundation to the present day, the CNR has always played a political role in the evolution of the national research system and has been the constant referent and architect of the country’s civil progress.
Why and how precisely does CNR’s combination of the humanities and the exact sciences guarantee new synergies and highly original and innovative possibilities for the future at the national and international levels?
The papers presented at the Conference 100 YEARS OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE AT THE CNR place preliminary emphasis on the relevance of historical figures, research, methodological developments, tangible and intangible archives, and the emergence of new synergies and technologies in all areas of knowledge during the CNR’s 100 years.