Cajal Institute

The Cajal Institute (IC) is a research center in neurobiology which belongs to the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The IC originates from the Laboratorio de Investigaciones Biológicas, founded in 1900 by order of King Alfonso XIII on the occasion of the Moscow Prize to Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852–1934). Following Cajal's award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1906 and the 1907 creation of the Junta de Ampliación de Estudios, Cajal was appointed President of the Junta. A royal decree by king Alfonso XIII established the construction of a new building and the appointment of Cajal as its first director in 1920.