Although delayed due to the pandemic, the Xunta de Galicia this week made public the resolution of researchers selected in the talent attraction and retention program. Under its auspices, the University of Vigo will be able to incorporate seven distinguished experts in scientific fields that the institution seeks to promote.
The call, which was launched this year for the first time with these characteristics, is for the Vice-Chancellor for Research, Belén Rubio, an initiative that should be maintained in the future, “since it places the Galician research system among one of the most attractive for developing the professional career of young researchers.”
The program offers ten places in the talent attraction modality and five for retention for the three universities, with contracts for a period of four years. UVigo, with four and three researchers selected respectively, achieved a success rate of 40% in one modality and 60% in the other, which Belén Rubio values “very positively”. The vice-chancellor explains that these results are the result of the “work carried out in the selection of the candidates that UVigo presented” to this call, since each research center and strategic grouping “had the responsibility of attracting the best candidates for the attraction contracts and they clearly succeeded”. Thus, the new researchers “come to strengthen the structure of these centers that are already excellent”. Meanwhile, the results in the retention modality, she adds, “reflect UVigo’s commitment to excellence also in its retention programs, where in recent years those postdoctoral researchers with the best CVs have been given continuity”.
Four new researchers in the talent attraction modality
The attraction modality aims to bring scientists “of recognized prestige” to Galicia to join the Galician university system for a period of four years. The amount of the grant is 91,000 euros, which is divided between 50,000 euros in salary and another 40,000 euros for the research line. To access one of these positions, researchers must have proven a minimum of four years of postdoctoral experience, two of which must be spent abroad. The candidates, the vice-rector points out, were previously selected by the University based on existing needs and the interest in strengthening areas linked to the CIM, Cinbio and atlanTTIc and the Ecobas strategic grouping. “We have great expectations for these profiles of the new professionals who will join the UVigo and who will cover aspects that we want to promote from the University.”
The researchers who will join Vigo in the near future in this modality are four. On the one hand, José Luis Izquierdo, currently in the Department of Chemistry in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid where he works in the field of biomedical imaging applications. Another of those selected is Mario Pansera, an Italian researcher, currently at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he is developing research that aims to analyze what a society capable of prospering without the need for continuous economic growth would be like. Pansera was also selected in the Starting Grant scholarship program of the European Research Council (ERC), which aims to enable young and outstanding researchers to create their own work teams and develop pioneering lines of research. The third expert who will arrive at UVigo is Juan Ramón Troncoso, trained at the School of Telecommunications Engineering of the University of Vigo, who is currently developing his professional career at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He will return to Vigo to continue working in applied cryptography, signal processing and multimedia security. Finally, in the attraction modality there is also Iván Franco, from the University of Helsinki, where he develops projects on the ecology of sandy beaches, the influence of major oceanographic processes, the functioning of the ecosystem, the loss of biodiversity and invasive species and the variables of climate change and their interactions and modifications of the functioning of the ecosystem. Franco has published works with researchers from the University of Vigo such as Mariano Lastra or Celia Olabarría (Coastal Ecology Group, Marine Research Center), since he studied Marine Sciences here, as well as his master’s and doctoral studies.
Three specialists who will continue at UVigo, in the talent retention modality
The retention modality aims to “promote” staff who are currently already linked to Galician universities in the specialization campuses or in strategic knowledge areas. To do this, the Xunta de Galicia provides 71,000 euros, divided into 50,000 euros in salary and 20,000 euros for research, for each of those selected, for a maximum period of four years. The requirements require four years of postdoctoral experience and being accredited as a contracted professor with a doctorate by Aneca or Acsug. The vice-rector explains that “they are our commitment from the beginning, they trained at home and did stays in prestigious international centers, where they specialized and built relationships with other researchers”. Precisely because of their trajectory, she adds, “UVigo cannot lose this experience and specialization, we intend not to waste what we have already invested to avoid that we end up exporting researchers with great experience abroad”.
Within the framework of the talent retention modality, Francisco Javier Pena, researcher from the Department of Analytical and Food Chemistry and the Analytical and Food Chemistry Group (QA2) of the Marine Research Center (CIM), will remain at UVigo, where he studies aspects such as miniaturization and sample preparation; microextraction; green analytical chemistry; atomic and molecular spectrometry and non-instrumental detection. Sandra Martínez is another of the researchers that UVigo retains. A specialist in marine ecology and biological oceanography, she currently works in the Department of Ecology and Animal Biology and more specifically in the Biological Oceanography Group of the CIM. Finally, Iria Fernández will also continue to develop her work in the Phylogenomics Laboratory, focusing on marine genomics.
Source: DUVI
