Javeriana University is one of the oldest, most traditional and well renowned universities in Colombia and Latin America. It is a private University, founded in 1623, and was the first University in Colombia to be awarded Institutional Accreditation by the Colombian Ministry of Education. This quality assurance measure is voluntary, and was created in 1992; only 21 Universities, among 280 existing Universities in Colombia, have been awarded such recognition. Javeriana University is a researched based University, with 161 research groups enrolled before the National Agency of Science and Technology (Colciencias), 123 of which have been ranked for their quality and productivity (2010). The University is number one, among private universities in Colombia, for having the most refereed journals; and fifth, among private and public universities, for having the largest number of ranked research groups. The University is part of three excellence research centers in Colombia: CIEBREG (Biodiversity and Genetic Resources), CEIBA (Complex Systems) and GEBIX (Genomics and Bioinformatics).