EMBRC is happy to celebrate PiE-UPV's anniversary this week. Read on to learn more about this wonderful institution and the incredible work it is doing.
The PiE-UPV/EHU building will be 100 years old in 2023, and although it was not anticipated in 1923, we now face a moment in history where all roads lead to marine biology and marine biotechnology. The building was conceived as a centre to fight against tuberculosis and bone disease; it was refurbished into a centre to promote research, education and dissemination around marine ecosystems and bioresources in the 21st century. The centre is devoted to scientific and technological research; teaching activities of specialised education (e.g., postgraduate studies and doctorates), and science dissemination. It also has a vision to provide technical advice and services to industry and public administrations in its area of expertise: the interaction between ocean ecosystems and human and environmental health.
PiE-UPV/EHU was born small, and remains small, but it is a mirror in which we see ourselves. Few researchers can say that have participated in the "birth" and "first steps" of their newborn research institution. PiE-UPV/EHU houses such staff, who are engaged with its development and progress. The marine station is wide in scope, well-defined but flexible, designed ad hoc for its purposes but modular, dynamic yet long-lasting, with strict controls necessary for excellence but with wide windows open towards people, and with deep roots to its homeland but with arms with open to the world. And yes, in these eight years of life we have connected with giants; along with the marine station of the University of Vigo (ECIMAT), we have made up the Spanish "node" of EMBRC (European Marine Biological Resource Centre) since 2014.
Since 203, we have produced more than 202 articles of which 80% have been published in journals in the 1st quartile (main "WOS" subject areas: Zoology, Toxicology, Environmental Science, Marine and Freshwater Biology, Toxicology, Analytical Chemistry, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Food Science and Technology).
PiE-UPV/EHU research groups have developed a contact network at global scale with more than 100 laboratories and research centres. By 2018 we had fostered international collaboration and achieved highly competitive funding on 1 FP7 project, 5 H2020 projects, 1 EU Joint JPI Oceans, 2 COST Actions, and 2 Interreg Projects.
We have offered, and continue to offer high-level training at postgraduate level (ERASMUS MUNDUS Master in Marine Environment & Resources, MER; ERASMUS PLUS International Master in Marine Resources, IMBRsea; ERASMUS MUNDUS Joint Master Degree on Marine Environment, MER+; ERASMUS MUNDUS Joint Master Degree on Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, ECT+).
High-level policy advice has been also provided, especially with OECD under the “Future of the Ocean Economy”, in EMBRC-ERIC and as a leader of the Euskampus Pole of Knowledge on "Ocean Health & Sustainable Valorization" (International Campus of Excellence in the Basque Country and Nouvelle Aquitaine).
We have engaged thousands of people through open days showing our research facilities, hoping to raise interest in our science very much linked to the local culture. Since 2013 we have organized two Open Days a year, Perseides Night (talks and stars viewing at night in August, every year) open to the public. In collaboration with NGOs we have organised science dissemination talks and we have regularly participated in the organisation of the Bilbao Science Week and the annual fish market of Bermeo. These activities included the organization of a special 3 weeks thematic exhibition on “Oceans” between October and November of 2018, with the presence of more than 6,000 visitors.
If those are the achievements of a child in its first eight years, the future looks blue ahead of us!!
