They are implementation units led by a director. The scientists conduct research, technological and development studies organized in several lines of work. There is appropriate equipment for the tasks conducted by researchers, technicians, scholar and administrative staff.
Most of the Implementation Units (UE) of CONICET are linked to universities, science and technology organisms and in some cases with provincial governments.
Decree 1661/96 “CONICET’s Missions and functions”, in Articles 31, 32 and 33 regulate the creation, working and government of the Implementation Units. The Resolution 995/06 of Institutional Policy complements the decree for the creation and working of the Institutional Network of CONICET.
Structure and Management
For the organization, each Implementation Unit must have a Director, a Vice-director and a Governing Board.
To elect the Governing Board, the members of the Implementation Unit will create electoral lists per sector: a register that comprises the members of CONICET’s Scientific and Technological Researcher Career of CONICET and the scientists who are part of the permanent staff and work on partner institutions; a list of the members of the Career of Support Staff for Research and Development (CPA) and technical staff of partner institutions; and one electoral list that includes the scholars that work at the Implementation Unit.
The Director is the institutional responsible for the Unit and its functioning according to the corresponding rules in each case. Besides, he or she chairs the governing board of the Implementation Unit and is responsible for the administration of human, economic or assets resources. This position is appointed by means of a public contest and is held for a specified period established by the regulations of CONICET and the institutions with double-dependency agreements for the Unit.
Characteristics of some research units:
- Service Centers: these are facilities equipped with cutting edge technology and trained human resources that offer scientific and technological specialized services for internal and external users of the organism.
- Networked Implementation Units (UER): these are researchers’ partnerships located in different workplaces linked by a common theme through appropriate computer support and frequent direct interaction. The UER are aimed at training human specialized human resources. Each workplace is made of an UER node.
- Multidisciplinary Research Centers: there were created after the need to promote scientific knowledge development at a regional level in geographical vacancy areas. These centers comprise research groups that belong to several disciplines.
- Groups linked to Implementation Units (GV): this modality allows the integration of an isolated research group with a number of scientists under the critical mass and an Implementation Unit with a related subject.