[en] The paper investigates the origins of the Center and of the Institute of Physics 'Jose Antonio Balseiro' from the reconstruction of the experimental research programs that were developed between the years 1955 and 1962 in those organizations of the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). Within that intention the paper analyzes the scientific policy of the Institute of Physics and its relations with the CNEA as well as the strategy of resolution of the economic and institutional crisis that affected them between 1958 and 1959. Its incidence in the consolidation of the research programs is also examined