The researchers from Ikerbasque managed to attract more than 28 million euros in the Basque Country in 2018

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28/02/2019

The researchers from Ikerbasque managed to attract more than 28 million euros in the Basque Country in 2018

At the end of 2018, IKERBASQUE had 153 long-distance and highly-qualified professionals; a total of 68 researchers from the Research Associate that have been aiming to promote high-level youth researchers, together with the two main categories of researchers, cover all stages of the researcher. Everyone's research work was widely researched in scientific journals. Thus, 1,160 articles were published throughout the year in total indexed publications, ie, in highly-qualified international editorial media.

The total amount of the funds obtained by IKERBASQUE researchers in 2018 was 28,366,352 euros (more than 2 million euros in 2017). Since 2007, the Basque Country has attracted 175 million Euros. From 589 outsourced projects (160 projects more than the previous year), twelve were financed by the ERC (European Research Council, European Research Council). This is the most prestigious organization of the old continent, with the promotion of ambitious research projects established in the frontier of knowledge, and by the end of the year, 877 people worked in researchers led by IKERBASQUE researchers.

IKERBASQUE, researchers from all over the world that have attracted work to universities and R & D centers in the Basque Country, are from 36 countries, most of them Spanish (138), Italians (22), Germans (11), Russians (7), British (7), Canadians (6) Americans (5), but there are also people from other 29 countries of Europe, America and Asia. Among them, men predominate, 79% compared to 21% of women.

Faced with the knowledge areas of researchers, most of them are physics scientists (30%), 22% in medical sciences and 14% in chemistry sciences. 12% are experts in human and social sciences, as well as engineers have the same percentage, and the remaining 10% are biological. Ikerbasque researchers come from the world's most prestigious centers, including the MIT, Harvard, Oxford and Stanford Universities, CNRS or the Max Planck Association.

The results obtained in 2018 can be said to be positioning itself as a European reference in the Basque Country. Internationally, Euskadi is already acknowledging that it is an advanced research region in the field of international research groups in the Basque Country and in which the best conditions for developing international research are concerned.

Some notable works

Among the work carried out by researchers at IKERBASQUE, and among the most important publications of the last year, the following can be highlighted:

-Luis Liz Marzan, Ikerbasque researcher and scientific director of CICbiomaGUNE, participated in the discovery of an innovative methodology for detecting amyloid fibers that are associated to neurodegenerative diseases. The study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences magazine opened the door to new methods of diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease and prion disease.

-Tom Broadhurst Ikerbasque Researcher and researchers at the UPV / EHU working together with him identified the farthest individual scene ever seen, a giant blue star baptized by name Icaro. The work was published in the prestigious Nature Astronomy magazine.

-Maia Garcia Vergniory, researcher at Ikerbasque, and the international research team working with DIPC, demonstrated that the electronic structure of the bismuth considered topologically irrelevant is topological. Nature Physics magazine offered the cover to the research.

-Ma José Sanz Ikerbasque Researcher and BC3 Scientific Director, in an article on greenhouse gas emissions published in Nature Climate Change, quantified the differences between the data provided by countries and the global community of models.

Target center

With regard to the target centers, 106 Ikerbasque researchers work in the UPV / EHU. The remaining 133 are working at universities and research centers in Deusto and Mondragón through the nine research centers of excellence called the BERC (Basque Excellence Research Center) under the Department of Education of the Basque Government.

This is the list of current BERCs currently in force:

-Achucarro - Basque Center for Neuroscience (Zamudio)

-Basque Center for Materials, Applications and Nanostructures

(Zamudio)

-Polymat - Basque Center for Macromolecular Design & Engineering

(Donostia)

-DIPC - Donostia International Physics Center (Donostia-San Sebastián)

-Materials Physics Center (Donostia)

-Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation (Leioa)

-BC3 - Basque Center of Climate Change (Bilbao)

-BCAM - Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (Bilbao)

-BCBL - Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (San Sebastian)

IKERBASQUE, nine centers of excellence and three universities (EHU / UPV, Deusto and Mondragón), which have been awarded the Center for Corporate Research (CIC), are required to incorporate BiomaGUNE (biomaterials), biogune (bioscience), energiGUNE (energy) and nanoGUNE ( nanoscience), as well as the Biodonostia and Biocruces research center for healthcare, the CEIT-IK4 technical research center, the Tecnalia research centers and Globernance (research and expansion center for political thinking). In total, 23 universities and research centers in the Basque Country are attracted by the attraction of international researchers.

Recognition of female researchers

In 2018, IKERBASQUE developed a plan for equality for men and women according to the methodology proposed by Emakunde, and as a result of this process, in order to move towards equality, Ikerbasque proposes 7 actions to be developed in the short term; among them, the recognition of female researchers. For this reason, in 2019, we want to recognize the three-way career in the Basque Country. Through this action, we want to showcase the great careers of female researchers to become models for future generations. There will be three statements: the recognition of the entire research career, recognition of the female researcher who has become the leader in the field of research and a significant contribution by a young female researcher. The final selection will be carried out by the Ikerbasque Trusteeship Committee, formed by Ikerbasque Trustees and Scientific Director, and will be validated by Ikerbasque Scientific Committee. The confessions will be distributed in a public event scheduled for May or June.

About IKERBASQUE

IKERBASQUE is the result of an initiative launched by the Basque Government, which has been reinforcing the commitment made by the autonomous community administrations, universities and companies for scientific research over the last years, as reflected in the Basque Science, Technology and Innovation Plan. The main focus of Ikerbasque's activity is to attract talent in this effort to place Euskadi in the R + D + I fields.

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