Institute of Spain

The Institute of Spain (Instituto de España, IdE) is a Spanish learned society, grouping ten royal academies. The institute is part of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, which partially funds these organizations.

The organization is headquartered in the city of Madrid, in a building known as Caserón de San Bernardo or Auditorium of Universidad Complutense, a former Jesuits-owned building. The Institute shares the space with the Complutense University of Madrid and the State School Council.

The institute is headed by a president who, since 2010, has been elected annually and on a rotating basis among the presidents or directors of the different royal academies.

History
The institution was founded in 1938 thanks to the impulse of Eugenio d'Ors and Pedro Sainz Rodríguez, who were inspired by the Institute of France. The Decree of January 1, 1938, established that the Institute of Spain was made of six of the most relevante Spanish academies: the Royal Spanish Academy (1713), the Royal Academy of History (1738), the Royal Academy of Sciences (1847), the Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences (1857) and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (1752) and the Royal National Academy of Medicine (1734).

All the members of the Institute were reunited for the first time on January 6, 1938, at the University of Salamanca, and, together, they were briefly entrusted with the task of guiding and directing the cultural and research policies in Spain, until the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) was established.

Since then, the institute has had three expansions: in 1946, when the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation (1763) and the Royal Academy of Pharmacy (1737) were incorporated, in 2015 when the Royal Academy of Engineering was incorporated (1994) and in 2017, when the Royal Academy of Economic and Financial Sciences was incorporated (1940).

In addition to the ten mentioned, as of 2023, there are another 65 academies associated with the Institute of Spain.

Academies
Currently, the Institute of Spain is made up of ten national Royal Academies, based in Madrid and Barcelona. The incorporation of other academies into the IdE, always at a national level, it is made by agreement of the Government, at the proposal of the minister responsible for the academies, and following a report from the IdeE and the academies that comprise it at that time, assessing the trajectory and quality of the corresponding institution as well as the excellence of its members and activities.

The Royal Academies that currently make up the IdE are the following, according to seniority priority (by date of incorporation into the IdeE):

Associated academies
According to the internal regulation of the Institute of Spain, the institution can make agreements with other academies of national, regional, provincial or local level, officially established and recognized, to make them associated academies. As of 2024, 66 of these academies are associated with the Institute of Spain. The last academy to get this status was the Youth Academy of Spain in April 2024.