Is Spanish research mini-miracle going to pervade?

Posted by 14 de June de 2010

Science magazine has published an interesting report on the situation of science in Spain. Although somwhow too optimistic, if one takes into account an inner vision, it shows the potential of the country to make a quantum leap in the following years. The basis has been set up, and now we need two main ingredients to ensure continuity, two mechanisms that are not entirely ensured within the current financial crisis context:

  1. continuous funding, if not increasing
  2. leaders that look beyond their own “business”

The reason for the first is obvious. The connotation of the second is not so. In a country with little history in producing knowledge and in competing with the world for a position among leading nations, little minded leaders, at all levels of organization, are the main dangers for the system to progress. The temptation to utilize the circumstancial power in the own benefit while sending messages of excellence is part of the Spanish culture, and those who are in the research field in Spain can give several examples in all our organizations. This is easy to cure, and there is only need fro decency and for clear regulations that favor such excellence with the most extreme transparency. Whatever is different than that is just yet another failed attempt to bring the country near the top, where it should be by its potential.

Screenshots of Activ8

Posted by 7 de June de 2010

Selected screenshots from the Activ8 portal, showing 3D biological environments relating to respiratory anatomy and cystic fibrosis.

From left to right: Research Environment, Research Tools, Cystic Fibrosis Pathway, Avatar, Organs, Lungs, Bronchiole wall and mucus, Alveolus, Cell, Membrane, Nucleus, Chromosomes, Chromosome 7.

Science, Language and Literacy

Posted by 3 de May de 2010

“Argument and debate are common in science, yet they are virtually absent from science education. Recent research shows, however, that opportunities for students to engage in collaborative discourse and argumentation offer a means of enhancing student conceptual understanding and students’ skills and capabilities with scientific reasoning. As one of the hallmarks of the scientist is critical, rational skepticism, the lack of opportunities to develop the ability to reason and argue scientifically would appear to be a significant weakness in contemporary educational practice. In short, knowing what is wrong matters as much as knowing what is right. This paper presents a summary of the main features of this body of research and discusses its implications for the teaching and learning of science.”
Jonathan Osborne

These are words taken from the abstract of one of the articles devoted to Science, Language and Literacy in the special issue of Science Magazine. An unavoidable reading for all those engaged on teaching science, but not just that…

Design and Management of Research Projects 2010

Posted by 19 de April de 2010

Proper project design, management and exploitation are key recipes for success in both science and business. Learning from strategies in the latter environment we can give us new visions on how to propose succesful research projects. This, eventually, will lead to better technology transfer and to a real improve on the society perception of science and on its impact in daily life economy. Within the framework of the MSc on Bioinformatics for Health Sciences we thought, some years ago, that adding a course on project management would be an excellent training for our students, with the perspective to make them aware of the role the society expects researchers to take, beyond the (extremely needed) basic science knowledge.

As the course has a wider scope than just for MSc students, we decided to propose the course as an external activity in which the MSc students are invited to attend.

The new 2010 edition of the course is organized by the GRIB, and it is available for registration and, following the experience of previous years is, doubtless, worth reserving some hours in our busy agenda to attend this extremely interesting and practical course.

Welcome to the new CBBL site

Posted by 17 de March de 2010

The new CBBL site is designed to provide easier acces to information and in a more dynamical way. After having developed group web sites since my PhD time in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, I have gone through the more or less standard process for a (semi-)advanced user: raw HTML pages, small CGI scripting, PHP/MySQL, Plone and…. coming back to a more reasonable approach using the WordPress PHPH/MySQL based system. I am quite happy with this new approach, as it allows concentrating on the content and not on the technicalities. We’ll see how long it takes to get sick of it, a quite common feature of this who writes.

Using the Blog capabilities of the new CBBL site, I’ll try to make a sense of my view of understanding research when other duties allow me to spend some minutes here. As publicly paid staff, researchers are not free to deliver results in the pace and with the global interest we wish, but the ones that the society deserves. In my view, in the same way we are eager to push ourselves to publish more and better every day, such publications should carry information not just important for our ego, but for the society as a whole. That is why we feel sad when a given article, in which we put so much efforts for so long, is after publication forgotten in a obscure library, be analogical or digital. The interest in publishing with high impact should not be seen as an end by itself, but the constant checking of the pace our publications are quoted by others and influence their work is critical.

Research, however, is “just” one of the three legs of our work as teaching staff in public institutions. The other two, teaching and technology transfer, are at least at the same level, in my view. Thus, the CBBL participates with interest in the teaching of several courses and in transferring technology to the commercial world, in order to give back to the society part of the resources we receive.

Last, but not least, researchers are requested to be critical in any part of their work, with themselves and with others. I’ll try not to betray this maxima and be as caustic as politeness allow. Unfortunately, my English is not as good as my native language Catalan and my Spanish, so other non-scientific opinions will be sent to other personal blogs as well, leaving this for issues related to my professional task.

By now, enjoy reading our production and get involved in those areas of the web site that allow such interaction.

As Catalonia is a welcoming country, this blog is also a welcoming blackboard for opinions related to research. Welcome to your home.

Jordi Villà-Freixa and Ferran Sanz granted with the 2009 Social Council awards of University Pompeu Fabra.

Posted by 22 de September de 2009

Jordi Villà-Freixa, head of Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics laboratory of GRIB and Ferran Sanz, Director of GRIB, have been granted with the 2009 Master Teaching Quality Award and the 2009 Knowledge Transfer Award respectively.

The Master Teaching Quality Award distinguishes the work of Dr. Villà-Freixa in the creation and development of the Master in Bioinformatics of University Pompeu Fabra.

The Knowledge Transfer Award distinguishes the contribution of Dr. Sanz to the development of new strategies in pharmaceutical research, as well as the promotion of public-private partnerships in the field.

They will receive these awards during the opening ceremony of the academic course 2009-2010 on September, 29th at UPF.