The CIM receives the visit of its External Advisory Board

O CIM recibe a visita dun comité avaliador externo internacional

Formed by five renowned marine researchers who visited the campus and Ecimat. They advise on scientific and internationalization strategies, and evaluate the management of the center.

The Marine Research Center (CIM) of the University of Vigo was visited this week by an external advisory board that, during the days of yesterday Thursday and today Friday, met with both the Center´s management team and the leaders of several research groups. This committee, formed by five internationally recognized marine scientists, aims to advise the CIM on scientific strategy, transfer, internationalization policy, infrastructure policy, talent attraction, training, research policies and responsible innovation. In addition, they are also in charge of evaluating the economic management, the fulfillment of periodic reports, the management performance, as well as the performance of the research groups.

Yesterday Thursday, they met with the director of the CIM, Daniel Rey, and with the director of the Ecimat, José Manuel García, and visited the facilities of the CIM both in the Vigo campus and in the Ecimat. Today, Friday, the meetings took place at the Experimental Sciences building, where the five members of the committee were received by the acting Vice-chancellor for Research, Belén Rubio, and the director of the CIM. They then held meetings with the leaders of several research groups, such as Emilio Rolán, José Luis Soengas, Ramón Gómez, Carlos Bendicho and Elena Ojea.

A newly created advisory council

The current External Advisory Board (EAB) was created in November 2021 and takes over from a previous team that had already made a first evaluation visit to the Center in 2019. The new board is made up of five internationally recognized marine scientists. Among them is Juanjo Dañobeitia, researcher of Xeofísica Mariña of CSIC, who was director of the Marine Technology Unit of CSIC that manages the oceanographic research vessels fleet and Antarctic research bases. He currently directs the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water columna Observatory (EMSO ERIC) in Rome. Also on the current board is Luísa M. P. Valiente, a biologist with more than 25 years of experience in fish nutrition and sustainable aquaculture and associate professor at ICBAS-University of Porto, as well as a member of the CIIMAR Board of Directors and the board of the European Aquaculture Society. Another member is Vera Pospelova, professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota and Senior HWK Fellow in Marine and Climate Research, who works in the field of taxonomy and calibration of marine palynomorphs as biological indicators of environmental conditions and in high-resolution paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic reconstructions of the late Quaternary using sedimentary records. Luis Valdés is director of the Oceanographic Center of Santander and coordinator of International Affairs of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO). He has extensive experience in science management and has conducted research in marine ecology and climate change for more than 35 years and has been an advisor to government entities, research agencies and international organizations. Finally, Gray Williams, director of the Swire Institute of Marine Sciences and professor at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, as well as visiting professor at Xiamen University, completes the team. His work focuses on the ecophysiology and behavior of intertidal species; especially those that inhabit the higher coastal zone of the tropical region of Southeast Asia.

Except for Williams, who participated in this first evaluation visit in virtual mode, the rest of the board members attended in person with the objective of obtaining a broad view of the position of the CIM within its socio-economic context, considering research performance and capabilities, infrastructure, governance and management, as well as other R&D related activities. This visit will result in an evaluation report to be delivered to the CIM next month.

A context marked by the pandemic and the new Horizon Europe program

The Marine Research Center of the University of Vigo is one of the eight Research Centers of the Galician University System accredited by the Department of Education, Universities and Professional Training of the Xunta de Galicia in January 2020, which makes it the central element of the SUG’s marine strategy. Regarding to this visit, the CIM´s management team emphasizes that there are several aspects to take into account when evaluating the last three years. On the one hand, the pandemic, which caused the delay in the execution of R+D+i projects, the reduction of stays and international research visits, the temporary closure of centers or the interruption, postponement or cancellation of experiments. On the other hand, it also coincided with the transition of the H2020 European funding framework program, which gave way to the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 program. The delay in the publication of some calls in the new program influenced the international funding attracted in 2021 by the CIM.

However, during this time the center also achieved important successes in attracting national funds for R+D+i infrastructures, such as more than 2 M€ for a hybrid propulsion oceanographic research vessel and an IRMS system for the analysis of stable oxygen and carbon isotopes and fixed isotopes in carbonates, among other infrastructures. During this time, the CIM was also able to maintain the number of SCI papers (175), PhD theses presented (19) and obtained more than 3 M€ in competitive research funds. The center also managed to attract new researchers, such as the ERC Starting Grant Sara Varela, an expert in the field of biological evolution and paleontology in the context of climate change, or Elena Ojea, a specialist in fisheries adaptation to climate change. The arrival of both allowed reinforcing a priority field of knowledge for the CIM such as climate change, as well as the areas of specialization on socioecological perspective, biodiversity and integrated management of coastal areas.