CIDEIM is committed to the well-being and progress of the people of Colombia, and the region. As an autonomous entity within the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation, CIDEIM’s institutional paradigm facilitates the exploration and opening of frontiers of biomedical research on transmissible diseases.  Our multidisciplinary team develops solutions to health problems and builds scientific and technological capacity through basic and applied research.  In order to achieve our mission, we work in concert with the public health, industrial and academic sectors at the national and international level.

This program evolved over the following three decades from a bilateral program of international cooperation to a national program having international recognition, and in which COLCIENCIAS (Colombian government entity established in 1973 to promote the development of science and technology) became a permanent advocate. In 1989, at the initiative of COLCIENCIAS a Provisional Board of Directors was designated to define the future of CIDEIM. This group of renown state and national academic and civic leaders determined the constitution of CIDEIM as an autonomous, non-profit, national organization. The decision was a definitive step in the process of national appropriation of the research and training mission of CIDEIM. In 1994, COLCIENCIAS officially became a founding member of CIDEIM and in this capacity, contributed the building in which CIDEIM has functioned since 1975.

The research and training activities conducted since 1990 have involved the collaboration of colleagues in over 35 international institutions in 15 countries and 29 national institutions. In recognition of the potential of CIDEIM's interdisciplinary competence in the investigation and management of human leishmaniasis to impact regionally, the institution was designated a WHO Collaborating Center in Leishmaniasis in 1992. This designation is currently under evaluation to be broadened to include other transmissible diseases.

National and international graduate and undergraduate students undertake apprenticeship training as well as develop thesis research projects in CIDEIM. Students have been supported by WHO/TDR training grants, Fulbright fellowships, Yale University Down's fellowship, Ministère del l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Français, the Fogarty NIAID Minority International Training Program, Colombia's ICETEX, COLCIENCIAS and research project grants. The award of the WHO/TDR Regional Training Consortium grant to CIDEIM in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Prevention and control (CDC), the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz and the Federal University of Rio de Janiero created new training opportunities and paradigms.