IRIT was founded in 1990. Since then, it plays a prominent role in Toulouse computer science research. It gathers together more than 690 members among which 500 researchers, faculty members, and Ph.D. students afiliated to CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), INPT (Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse), UT3 (Université Toulouse 3 Paul Sabatier), UT1 (Université Toulouse1 Capitole) and UT2J (Université Toulouse 2 Jean Jaurès).
Research at IRIT covers most of the fields where computer and information science are in progress, be it in its core, ranging from computer architecture to software engineering and computer networks, or in its most contemporary developments like artificial intelligence and cognitive systems, multimedia man-machine interaction, image interpretation and synthesis.