SPIE lauds plan for funding scientific research in Spain

Bellingham, WA--SPIE has congratulated the Spanish Ministry of Science for its far-sighted leadership in support of science, after the ministry announced its decision to distribute €1 million per year to each of eight research centers in the country for a period of four years. The eight facilities are being funded under the first round of the ministry's Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program, which promotes scientific advances in Spain's universities and research institutes in a time of economic crisis.

The funding program is expected to bring valuable jobs and stability to Spain's economy as well as allow the country to become an industry leader, says SPIE president Katarina Svanberg.

While all the centers being funded in the first round are quite worthy of the support, photonics in particular holds much immediate and long-term promise, says Svanberg. Such centers include the Instituto de Ciencias Fotónicas, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas, and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias.

Plans for the Severo Ochoa program, launched by science minister Cristina Garmendia, are to fund 32 more centers over the next four years.

The eight research centers selected in the first round are:

• Institut de Recerca Biomèdica de Barcelona (IRB)
• Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BCN-CNS)
• Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (GSE)
• Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas (ICMAT)
• Instituto de Ciencias Fotónicas (ICFO)
• Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
• Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas Carlos III (CNIO)
• Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC)

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