SEFIN was approved by the “Dirección General de Política Interior” on 26 December 1983 and is registered in the “Registro de Asociaciones del Gobierno Civil” in Salamanca with number 581. The SEFIN has therefore completed forty years of existence.

The foundation of SEFIN is linked to the celebration of the I Spanish National Meeting on Nitrogen Fixation on 8-10 June 1983 in Salamanca. This meeting was organized by the Nitrogen Fixation Unit of Centro de Edafología y Biología Aplicada, which belongs to the Spanish Higher Council of Scientific Research (CSIC). The organizing committee was chaired by Dr. Claudino Rodríguez Barrueco. This meeting represented the first “get-together” of national experts in biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). The primary aim of this first meeting was to elaborate an inventory of the research performed on BNF in Spain, by encompassing aspects related to the physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, agronomy, industry and ecology of biological systems that carry out BNF in the free-living or symbiotic stage. This included studies of the effects of abiotic, biotic and xenobiotic factors on BNF.

During the first meeting, the statutes of the newborn Society were presented by a committee formed by Dr. Claudino Rodríguez Barrueco as President, Dr. Tomás Ruiz Argüeso as Secretary, Dr. Francisco Bermúdez de Castro y Naya as Treasurer, and Dr. José Olivares Pascual and Dr. Rafael Orive Echevarría as Board members.