The Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo has once again received accreditation as a Research Center of the Galician University System with the Cigus brand, a new identification seal that the Galician executive is working on and which, as announced this Friday by the president, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, will allow Galicia to be projected as a reference in the scientific and research field, “a kind of Galicia Quality of Research”. The announcement was made at the ceremony of awarding accreditation certificates to the research centers of the Galician University System, co-financed by the Xunta de Galicia and the European Regional Development Fund under the FEDER Galicia 2014-2020 operational program. The event was attended, in addition to the president of the Xunta himself, by the Minister of Education and University Planning, Román Rodríguez, the three rectors and the heads of the eight accredited research centers: atlanTTIC, Cinbio and CIM, of the UVigo; Ciqus, Cimus, Citius and Igfae, of the University of Santiago de Compostela, and Citic, of the University of A Coruña.
The accreditation of the Xunta de Galicia had already been published in the DOG on January 13, but the health crisis caused by the coronavirus delayed the celebration of the award ceremony. “The accreditation is a recognition of the excellence of the research staff of these centers and this, together with the creation of this new seal, will help them to give greater projection so that they are better known both nationally and internationally”, explains the vice-rector for Research, Belén Rubio, who accompanied the rector, Manuel Reigosa, and the managers of these three research centers to the award ceremony. “It is important that it is seen that in Galicia there is a power and a very relevant mass of research centers in these areas: telecommunications, the sea and biosanitary research as far as the University of Vigo is concerned”, emphasized Rubio, who also recalled that today only three communities have seals to identify their centers: Catalonia (CERCA centers), Basque Country (GUNE centers) and Madrid (IMDEA centers).
Centers of reference for scientific research in Galicia
For his part, the President of the Xunta emphasized at this event that the Galician executive has increased the investment in these eight research centers to around 18 million euros, which guarantees their funding for a period of three years, that is, until 2022. “With these accreditations we aspire to consolidate a more competitive scientific system, both at a state and European level, with the aim of attracting and maintaining research talent and improving the position of Galician universities in international rankings”, emphasized Núñez Feijóo.
In the case of the University of Vigo, the certificates that accredit them as reference centers for scientific research in Galicia were collected by Professor Martín Llamas, director of atlanTTic, the Galician Telecommunications Center; Professor Diana Valverde, deputy director of the Biomedical Research Center, Cinbio; and Daniel Rey, director of the Marine Research Center, CIM. All of them, together with their colleagues from the other two Galician universities, appealed for the need to maintain the commitment and provide resources to research in the Galician community as a way to face the challenges of the present and future by betting on the knowledge and talent that comes out of universities.
Source: DUVI
