Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu presided over the presentation this afternoon of the recognition to a group of researchers from all areas of knowledge who will carry out their work in the universities and research centers of Euskadi in the coming years through Ikerbasque. The event also included the participation of Jokin Bildarratz, Minister of Education, Fernando Cossío, scientific director of Ikerbasque and representatives of the Department of Education and the Basque Science System.
Ikerbasque programs pursue a clear objective of attracting and retaining talent: on the one hand, it is about attracting those who are carrying out their research work abroad, placing special emphasis on the return to the Basque Country of research personnel who at some point of their career have marched away; and on the other hand, offer opportunities to consolidate their careers to those who are already researching in Euskadi. Of the 26 researchers who have received their recognition today from the Lehendakari, 10 are Basque men and women who have either returned to Euskadi through these programs or have managed to consolidate their research position.
The Research Professor call is aimed at established researchers with extensive international experience and proven leadership capacity. Through this call in 2023, 6 new researchers have been incorporated, among which is Marcin Balcerzyk, doctor in Physical Sciences from the Soltan Institute of Nuclear Studies in Poland, who after carrying out different research stays in centers in the US and Europe, he has joined Bioaraba where he will investigate the improvement of cancer treatments through proton therapy techniques.
The Research Fellow program, for its part, is an initiative specifically designed to attract and maintain young people who are experts in various branches of knowledge in the Basque Country, with the aim of creating a “pool” of researchers. Thanks to the Research Fellow program, 14 people have joined in 2023, including Amaia Carrión. Born in Donostia, she completed her doctorate at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, NL) on the genetic basis of dyslexia, and is currently researching the relationship between genes/brain and reading at the BCBL Basque Center for Brain, Language and Cognition.
These two calls are completed with the Research Associate program, which aims to be a bridge between these two categories with the aim that Ikerbasque can cover the different stages of the research career. With this program, 6 people have been incorporated this year.
Ikerbasque currently has 375 researchers including Research Professors (190), Research Associates (95) and Research Fellows (90), who have been incorporated into the Basque System of Science, Technology and Innovation. Universities and R&D centers in the Basque Country are benefiting from the contributions of experts in the most diverse fields, ranging from experimental sciences to the humanities, including medicine, technical and engineering studies and social sciences.
Ikerbasque is the result of an initiative of the Basque Government that aims to reinforce the commitment to scientific research that has been carried out for years by both the administrations, universities and companies of the autonomous community and which was reflected in the development of the Basque Science Plan, Technology and Innovation. To contribute to this effort to position Euskadi among the most relevant powers in R&D&I, the fundamental axis of its action is to serve as a pole of attraction for research talent.
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