The Sistema Nacional de Investigadoras e Investigadores (SNII) — known for nearly four decades as the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (SNI) — is Mexico’s national program for evaluating and formally recognizing individual researchers. It is not a funding program, an institutional directory, or a persistent-identifier registry in the ORCID/ROR sense. It is a peer-reviewed distinction and ranking system: researchers who meet its criteria are certified into one of a small number of tiers based on sustained research productivity, and that certification carries both professional prestige and, for Mexico-based researchers, a monthly economic stimulus funded through the federal budget.
SNII is administered by Mexico’s science secretariat, SECIHTI (Secretaría de Ciencia, Humanidades, Tecnología e Innovación) — the same body that was CONACYT until May 2023 and CONAHCYT until January 2025. SNII and SECIHTI are frequently confused because SECIHTI administers SNII, but they are not the same thing: SECIHTI is the cabinet-level ministry that runs grant programs, scholarships, and national research policy; SNII is one specific program within that ministry’s remit, focused narrowly on individual-researcher recognition rather than institutional funding.
From SNI to SNII: what changed and when
SNI was created by presidential decree published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on July 26, 1984, in response to a wave of researcher emigration during Mexico’s 1982 economic crisis. It ran under that name for almost 40 years.
The rename to SNII happened as part of a broader 2023 legal overhaul of Mexico’s science governance. The Ley General en Materia de Humanidades, Ciencias, Tecnologías e Innovación (LGHCTI) was published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on May 8, 2023, restructuring CONACYT into CONAHCYT and renaming SNI to SNII — a change to gender-inclusive language (“Investigadoras e Investigadores,” researchers of both genders, rather than the generic masculine “Investigadores”). A new SNII regulation (Reglamento del Sistema Nacional de Investigadoras e Investigadores) was subsequently published in the Diario Oficial de la Federación on July 11, 2023, setting out the current tier structure, evaluation criteria, and stipend rules described below. Some older institutional pages, CVs, and third-party sources still refer to “SNI” or write “SNI(I)” — for current purposes the two names refer to the same program under SECIHTI, and “SNII” is the name to use going forward.
The tier structure
SNII recognizes researchers through a small number of ordered categories, each with its own eligibility bar and a defined term of validity before re-evaluation:
- Candidato a Investigador Nacional (“Candidate”) — the entry tier, typically for researchers early in an independent research career. Ordinary duration: four years.
- Investigador Nacional Nivel I — demonstrated, sustained research output. Ordinary duration: five years.
- Investigador Nacional Nivel II — requires broader recognition in the researcher’s field. Ordinary duration: five years.
- Investigador Nacional Nivel III — reserved for researchers judged to be making significant, nationally recognized contributions. Ordinary duration: five years for the first two consecutive recognitions at this level; from the third consecutive recognition onward, ten years.
- Investigador Nacional Emérito (“Emeritus”) — a lifelong distinction awarded to senior researchers with an outstanding, sustained record, typically after reaching Nivel III.
Evaluation at every tier is peer-based: panels assess documented research output — publications, patents, thesis direction, teaching, and (at the higher tiers) a track record of forming and leading research groups — rather than a single metric. Renewal is not automatic; researchers must reapply and be re-evaluated before their current recognition period expires. This tier structure and the duration figures above reflect the July 2023 regulation currently in force; always check SECIHTI’s own published convocatoria (call) and regulation text for the specific cycle a researcher is applying under, since criteria and deadlines are updated periodically.
Eligibility and how to apply
SNII membership is open to people conducting habitual, systematic research or technological-development work in science, technology, humanities, or innovation, generally based at a Mexican public higher-education institution or a recognized research center. Researchers at private-sector or social-sector institutions can also be eligible where their institution holds an active collaboration agreement with SNII. Applications and renewals are submitted through SECIHTI’s online platform (branded “Rizoma” at the time of writing), where each researcher maintains a single profile documenting their qualifications, output, and prior SNII history.
Benefits: prestige and economic stimulus
SNII membership functions as a de facto quality signal in Mexican academic hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions — many public universities and CONAHCYT/SECIHTI-linked research centers treat SNII tier as a formal or informal input into internal evaluation and, in some cases, salary supplements. For researchers based in Mexico, SNII membership also carries a direct monthly economic stimulus, disbursed through federal budget allocations and varying by tier — the regulation makes stimulus payment explicitly subject to “existencia y suficiencia presupuestal” (budget availability), so the amount and continuity of payments are not fixed guarantees independent of the federal budget cycle. Specific peso amounts change periodically with each year’s budget and are not reproduced here; researchers should confirm current figures directly against SECIHTI’s published convocatoria rather than relying on older secondary sources. Researchers who hold SNII distinction while based outside Mexico generally receive the academic recognition without the monthly stimulus, which is tied to being based in the country.
How SNII differs from a persistent identifier or a CRIS
Because this page sits in a cluster about research identifiers and information systems, it’s worth being explicit about what SNII is not. Unlike ORCID iDs, DOIs, or ROR IDs, SNII membership is not an interoperable, machine-resolvable persistent identifier that other systems reference programmatically — it doesn’t function like the identifier infrastructure described in CASRAI’s CRIS material. It is closer in spirit to a national research-assessment and honorific-recognition exercise, comparable in function (though not in mechanism) to programs elsewhere in Latin America such as Brazil’s CNPq researcher-productivity fellowships or, more distantly, national research-excellence frameworks used by some European funders. A SNII profile is a researcher-level record inside a national administrative system, not a globally resolvable identifier — though many SNII applicants do separately hold and cite an ORCID iD as part of documenting their publication record.
Why this matters for international collaborators and research offices
Research administrators and international partners working with Mexican co-investigators encounter SNII most often in two contexts: reading a Mexican researcher’s CV or biosketch (where “SNI Nivel II” or “Investigador Nacional III” signals a specific, verifiable tier of national recognition, not a self-reported honorific), and structuring collaboration or subaward agreements where a partner institution’s eligibility, cost-sharing, or co-investigator qualifications reference SNII status. Because SNII sits under SECIHTI, institutional changes to SECIHTI’s structure, budget, or regulations can affect SNII eligibility rules and stimulus levels — see CASRAI’s guide to SECIHTI’s restructuring from CONACYT/CONAHCYT for the funding-agency side of this relationship.
Frequently asked questions
Is SNII the same as SNI?
Yes. SNII (Sistema Nacional de Investigadoras e Investigadores) is the current name of the same program previously called SNI (Sistema Nacional de Investigadores). The name changed in 2023 as part of Mexico’s LGHCTI science-governance reform, primarily to adopt gender-inclusive language; the program’s core function — peer-evaluated recognition of individual researchers — did not change.
Is SNII the same as SECIHTI or CONACYT?
No. SECIHTI (formerly CONACYT, then CONAHCYT) is Mexico’s national science secretariat — a cabinet-level ministry running many programs. SNII is one specific program administered by SECIHTI, focused on evaluating and recognizing individual researchers rather than funding institutions or projects broadly.
What are the SNII tiers, from lowest to highest?
Candidato a Investigador Nacional, then Investigador Nacional Nivel I, II, and III, with Investigador Nacional Emérito as a separate lifelong distinction typically reached after Nivel III.
Does SNII membership come with a salary or stipend?
Researchers based in Mexico can receive a monthly economic stimulus tied to their tier, funded through the federal budget and subject to annual budget availability. Amounts vary by tier and by budget year — check SECIHTI’s current convocatoria for exact figures rather than relying on an older figure. Researchers based abroad generally receive the academic distinction without the monetary stimulus.
Can foreign or Mexico-based-abroad researchers join SNII?
SNII membership is not limited to researchers who are Mexican nationals, but eligibility generally requires a qualifying research role, often tied to a Mexican institution or an active collaboration agreement; researchers based outside Mexico who qualify typically receive recognition without the monetary stimulus. Applicants should confirm current eligibility rules directly with SECIHTI, as these are set by regulation and updated periodically.
Is a SNII number a persistent identifier like an ORCID iD?
No. SNII is a national researcher-recognition and evaluation program, not an interoperable persistent-identifier scheme. It doesn’t resolve to a machine-readable record the way an ORCID iD, DOI, or ROR ID does. Many researchers hold both — an ORCID iD to identify and link their outputs across publishers and repositories, and separately a SNII tier as a national recognition credential.
