- The president of the CSIC, Eloísa del Pino, in her visit to the IIBM has detailed the goals achieved after assuming the leadership of the institution last year. First she met with all the IIBM staff, then with the management team, and finally she walked around the Institute's facilities.
The president of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Eloísa del Pino, visited the Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas Alberto Sols (IIBM) CSIC-UAM on Monday, July 10. This visit is part of an active program of visits to CSIC's own and joint centers in order to learn about the reality of all of them.
Eloísa del Pino was accompanied by the vice-president for Organization and Institutional Relations, Carlos Closa; the advisor to the President's Office on biomedicine, Isabel Varela, and the institutional delegate of the CSIC in Madrid, Marina Villegas. To begin the day's visit, the president met with all members of the IIBM, scientists, technicians and administrative staff in the auditorium. There she detailed the achievements made and how much remains to be done in the Institution. Afterwards, they met with the director of the center, Mario Vallejo, the vice-director Aurora Sánchez and the manager, Isabel Ocaña, and then they visited several scientific-technical services and laboratories of both the Institute and the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Medicine of the UAM.
In the presentation made by the director of the IIBM, Mario Vallejo said on behalf of all the members of the Center, that it is a great honor to welcome both the president and her management team to the IIBM, "although it could not be the 100th Institute that you visit, but we are equally grateful to be the 101st Institute", the director added affectionately.
In her talk with the IIBM staff, the president highlighted the importance of the CSIC management contract and its imminent approval by the Council of Ministers. This is a contract between the CSIC and the public administration according to which the Institution receives directly from the State a fixed budget with the commitment to fulfill a series of strategic objectives. "After many years of negotiation we have achieved a milestone," said the president, while assuring that "this contract will not solve all the CSIC's problems, but it will strengthen the institution in the medium and long term through progressively more ambitious renewals depending on the requirements".
This contract, which will provide CSIC with a relatively independent framework of action for renewable periods of 4 years, has 3 parts. As for scientific and management planning: "I see it as a four-step pyramid", explained the president, where "at the base would be administrative simplification and improvement of computer systems", she added. In fact, she reported that a first batch of 11.5 million euros has already been received.
On the second step of the pyramid would be the way in which the CSIC and its centers are governed, as well as improving communication between Institutes, PTIs, etc.
The third step aims to make the CSIC an institution "where people like to work", and not only scientists, but also technicians (supporting the creation of a new scale of technologists) and staff dedicated to management. She assured that this year the offer of internal promotion positions has been the most ambitious ever.
The fourth step is to increase the institutional, scientific and social relevance of the CSIC: "we have to be where the decisions are made", added the president, and she also stressed "also in the Autonomous Communities, in the European Union and in the G6 of Science". By being where decisions are made, there is a greater chance of attracting scientific, technical and management talent, as well as public resources
She also spoke about the new MAX program to make the ICUS more autonomous and enable them to receive funding to alleviate their difficulties: "because each CSIC center knows what specific problems it has", said the president. She also mentioned the collection of reports Science For Policy, which have been prepared by CSIC researchers and aim to serve as a bridge between research centers and policy makers to contribute to the definition of public policies based on scientific evidence. Del Pino also spoke about the Cicerón program, which aims to show the science conducted in laboratories to political managers, companies, journalists and other social agents.
After the talk, the president of the CSIC has answered several questions from members of the IIBM, issues, on the other hand, that concern all of us. From the auditorium, the president and her team met with the management team of the IIBM.
To conclude the visit to our Center, the president and her team walked through the laboratories of the IIBM, visited the biomedical MRI service Sebastián Cerdán, as well as several rooms of the Institute and the Department of Biochemistry of the Faculty of Medicine
