The CEA is a major player in research, development and innovation in Europe, developing R&D programmes in 3 main fields: Energy, Information and Health Technologies and Defence, all supported by a substratum of high level basic research, based on collaborations with Universities and CNRS.

Research at CEA is 2/3 Technological and 1/3 Fundamental. 30 % of the budget comes from contracts, mainly on the basis of PPP. Employing more than 15000 researchers, engineers and professionals (1), it takes benefit from a crossed engineers/researchers culture, synergies between fundamental research and technological innovation, exceptional installations (super-computer, research reactors, large physics instruments, high power lasers, etc) and, finally, a real involvement in the industrial and economic activities.