Institute of Scientific Instruments was created in 1957 as an institution ensuring diverse scientific equipment for other institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The institute had at first 83 employees but their amount progressively increased and reached 240 in 1989.

Currently, the institute is a public research institution based on the Act No 341/2005 Coll. The aim of this institution is to make a scientific research, contribute to application of knowledge acquired and ensure the research infrastructure.

The main areas of its research are:

• magnetic resonance,
• electron microscopy and microanalysis,
• use of lasers, optics
• microphotonics
• measuring and processing biosignals,
• scientific equipment construction,
• improving and using special technology.