16 researchers from all fields of knowledge will benefit this year from the University of Vigo’s Research Talent Retention Program. With the aim of facilitating the continuity of the activity developed by the research staff incorporated through the Ramón y Cajal, Marie Curie, Juan de la Cierva doctoral programs and postdoctoral grant programs of the Xunta de Galicia, the University of Vigo launched this and other programs years ago aimed at attracting and consolidating the research staff who develop their activity at the academic institution. Researchers Juan Antonio Añel, María Aranguren, Alejandro Cabrera, Inmaculada de la Calle, Francisco Javier Deive, Adolfo Fernández, Iria Fernández, Susana Magadán, Sandra Martínez, Ana Querejeta, Antonio Riveiro, Rogelio Santiago, José Andrés Santiago, Rosana Simón, David Tizón and María Doleres Torres are the beneficiaries of the talent retention program that allows for the formalization of three-year contracts, as full-time temporary workers, in the distinguished researcher modality.
Of the sixteen people benefiting from this program, four work at CIM-Uvigo: María Aranguren Gassis and Sandra Martínez García, from the Biological Oceanography group (GOB) and Juan Antonio Añel Cabanelas and Alejandro Cabrera Crespo, from the Environmental Physics Laboratory (EPHYSLAB). Researcher María Aranguren focuses her research on the study of the responses of marine phytoplankton to the interaction of different environmental factors that are altered in the ocean due to climate change, while Sandra Martínez specializes in the study of the structure and functioning of marine microbial plankton, paying special attention to the effect of global change on the functioning of microplankton communities in the ocean. Within EPHYSLAB, Juan Antonio Añel works in climatology and atmospheric sciences, while Alejandro Cabrera, an expert in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), specializes in the application of computational methods to real engineering problems such as coastal protection against extreme and dangerous events and the numerical design of wave energy converters.
The selected people value stability and demand a future projection
“Being a beneficiary of this program is a great boost for my career and a motivation to continue dedicating myself to research,” explains biochemist Rosana Simón Vázquez, who points out that the major problem that researchers in Spain suffer from is the difficulty in developing their careers and achieving a position as a tenured researcher or university professor at an early age. The researcher from the Immunology Group, who is currently working on the development of vaccines and therapies based on the use of nanosystems for the controlled release of antigens or drugs, considers this type of policy “very positive, but they must have a real future projection, since otherwise they will end up being just another aid to the temporary hiring of researchers.”
For biologist María Aranguren Gassis, being a beneficiary of this program “is an opportunity to advance my research career in two ways: firstly, by allowing me to choose to be the principal investigator of my own project, helping to establish my line of work and, secondly, it gives me the peace of mind of being able to dedicate my working time to research and teaching without having to spend hours looking for new job opportunities towards an immediate end of contract”. In the Biological Oceanography Group of the CIM-University of Vigo, María Aranguren focuses on the study of the responses of marine phytoplankton to the interaction of different environmental factors that are altered in the ocean due to climate change. “I am currently working on the study of the response of marine diatoms to simultaneous changes in temperature and nitrate availability, both from the point of view of short-term responses (acclimation) and long-term (evolutionary adaptation)”, details the researcher.
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