Chosen the specialists of the science-political pairing program in the Valencian Community

VALENCIA, 21 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The state-level association Science in Parliament (CeeP), in collaboration with RUVID (Network of Valencian Universities for the promotion of Research, Development and Innovation) in the Valencian Community, have presented the twelve research profiles that will participate in the Science Meets Regions Comunitat Valenciana 2023 matching program: Green transition and sustainability.

Sponsored by the Joint Research Center, this European initiative aims to bring the scientific and political communities closer to foster tangible, effective and sustainable collaborations over time and thus advance the challenges posed by the green transition in the region.

The Valencian Community is the first Spanish autonomy in which this program will be developed, which, in 2022, was carried out at the national level with very satisfactory results, university sources highlight.

Explain to political leaders how science is developed in their territory and which are the ideal interlocutors for the subject of specialization (in this case, Green Transition and Sustainability) who can help them make decisions to solve problems of a technical nature. Science will be one of the keys to the task for which more than fifty candidates have presented themselves after the call to participate in the first Science Meets Regions Matching Program in the Valencian Community.

A complete success of the call both for the number of interested people, and for the diversity of scientific profiles received, and whose selection "has been very complicated", as the people in charge of the organization assure.

The six women and six men from the scientific field chosen for the program are: Esther Roca Campos and Josep Ribes Bertomeu, both from the University of Valencia; José Ramón Serrano Cruz, from the Polytechnic University of Valencia; Silvia Spairani Berrio, from the University of Alicante; Sergio Chiva Vicente and Luis Cabedo Mas, both from the Jaume I University of Castelló; Herminia Puerto Molina and Carolina Senabre Blanes, from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche; Jordi Renau Martínez, from the CEU Cardinal Herrera University; Esther Moreno Latorre, from the Catholic University of Valencia; Oksana Udovyk, from INGENIO, joint center of the UPV and the CSIC; and Laureano Emilio Carpio Mulas, from the ProtoQSAR company.

The scientific disciplines in which these twelve people work cover a wide range that includes the topics of nuclear engineering and water resources and environmental contamination; green hydrogen; Bioinformatics for the search for compounds with less damage to the environment; Environmental education; Postwar green reconstruction; Didactics on sustainability issues; Efficiency in the use of water and energy in crops; Environmental modeling focused on hydraulic management; Architecture and energy rating; Recycling and reuse of urban wastewater resources and municipal organic waste; sustainable plastics; photovoltaic energy; and Governance and citizen participation.

After the municipal elections in May, the search will begin for the political couple that will be assigned to each of these twelve researchers. For this, political profiles that can value scientific evidence for a better public service to citizens will be taken into account, and thus contribute, from their local, regional or regional level, to favor the exchange of knowledge between the legislative power and the scientific community, as well as to improve mutual understanding between both worlds.

Science in Parliament is a non-profit association whose objective is that science and scientific knowledge are one of the sources of information in the formulation of political proposals. Science in Parliament emerged in 2018 as a popular initiative with volunteers from the world of science who dedicate part of their free time to this work.

The Network of Valencian Universities for the promotion of Research, Development and Innovation (RUVID) was born in December 2001 through a collaboration agreement between the five Valencian public universities. Currently, it is made up of the following partners: University of Valencia, Polytechnic University of Valencia, University of Alicante, Jaume I University of Castelló, Miguel Hernández University of Elche, CEU Cardenal Herrera University, Catholic University of Valencia and the Higher Council for Scientific Research - Delegation in the Valencian Community.

The Joint Research Center's Science meets Regions program aims to adopt a clear and strategic focus on issues of relevance to regions and cities, in line with the priorities of the European Commission, and to fill the gap existing at the local and regional level in the instruments of the EU that address evidence-informed policy making. Selected matchmaking programs can be viewed at this link.