Founded in 1939, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is a government funded research organization under the administrative authority of France's Ministry of Research. CNRS is organized in 1100+ laboratories distributed across France and employs a large number of permanent researchers, engineers, technicians, and administrative staff (>30,000). CNRS annual budget for research is about 3,3 billion Euro per year. As one of the largest research organization in EU, CNRS is involved in all fields of science, technology, society. It is part of several national, EU, international projects. It is the home of 20+ Nobel Laureates and 12+ Fields Medalists. It is involved in research programs with 60+ countries, is part of 320+ cooperative research projects, established 160+ international associated laboratories, 35+ laboratories are based overseas. CNRS is ranked 1^st according to Nature Index.

According to Scimago Institutions Rankings, CNRS is the second most important research organization in terms of scientific publications (just behind the Chinese Academy of Science). It is listed in the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovator & is ranked 7^th in the world in terms of filled patents.