MEDNIGHT, the Mediterranean Researchers’ Night, presents the first Mediterranean Science Soccer Team
- Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit
- September 16th, 2021
Poster of the activity.
Eleven scientists from different Mediterranean countries will be honoured on September 24 at a gala for science that will be held at noon at Casa Mediterráneo in Alicante and will form the first Mediterranean Science Soccer Team. During the event, each member will receive a soccer shirt with the MEDNIGHT crest, which symbolises their membership in a pioneering team in the science league. The universities of Valencia, Alicante and Jaume I of Castellón are part of the Mediterranean Researchers’ Night, as well as the CSIC delegation in the Valencian Community and research entities such as FISABIO and INCLIVA.
As guest of honour at the presentation of the Mediterranean Science Soccer Team, the event will be attended by the former president of the Government of Spain José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, founder of Casa Mediterráneo, a body that promotes the unity of the Mediterranean countries and promoter of science as an indispensable basis of the social thinking. The attendance of personalities from the scientific and political field who support this proposal for international unity is also planned.
The Mediterranean Science Soccer Team is made up of eleven people because the goal of MEDNIGHT is to symbolise a real one, which will be the first Mediterranean Science Team. During the gala, each member of the National Team will receive a soccer shirt with the MEDNIGHT crest, which symbolises their belonging to this pioneering team in the science league.
The event will be attended by scientists from the First Mediterranean Soccer Team from eight countries, as well as top-level scientists. Among the scientists who are part of the Mediterranean Science Soccer Team and will be present at the gala, are Guillermina López-Bendito (Spain), researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences of Alicante (UMH-CSIC) and Francisco Mojica (Spain), researcher of the Department of Physiology, Genetics and Microbiology of the University of Alicante, among others.
Among the people who will take part in the gala, are the Minister of Universal Health and Public Health of the Valencian Government, Ana Barceló; Carolina Pascual, Minister of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Valencian Government; María Isabel Fortea, general director of Scientific Research and Innovation of the Region of Murcia; and Rosina López Alonso, vice president of Organisation and Institutional Relations of the CSIC, among other personalities.
The Mediterranean Science Soccer Team
Those selected represent nine countries of the Mediterranean basin: Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, France and Italy, which makes the Mediterranean Science Soccer Team 2021 a first step towards the creation of a Mediterranean identity with science as a common link.
The team is made up of 8 women and 3 men, experts in the thematic areas of greatest interest to MEDNIGHT: science for the future, technology, health, climate change, anthropology and marine science.
The jury that has chosen the 11 members of the Mediterranean Science Soccer Team will also attend the gala, in person or online, and is made up of María A. Blasco, director of the CNIO; Professor Nektarios Tavernarakis, Vice President of the European Research Council (ERC); Fernando Valladares, director of the Ecology and Global Change group at the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC); Pampa García Molina, coordinator and chief editor of the Scientific News and Information Service (SINC); Juan Fuster Verdú, institutional delegate of the CSIC in the Valencian Community and professor Gulsun Sağlamer, president of the European Women Rectors Association (EWORA).
Who makes MEDNIGHT possible
MEDNIGHT is held within the framework of the European Researchers’ Night, a scientific dissemination project promoted and funded by the European Commission as part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie actions (grant agreement No. 101036107) of the Horizon 2020 program.
The MEDNIGHT project, coordinated by the Alicante company El Caleidoscopio, brings together the participation in a consortium of 13 institutions: Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO); Jaume I University (UJI); University of Valencia (UV); Foundation for Research of the Clinical Hospital of the Valencian Community (INCLIVA); State Agency Spanish National Research Council (CSIC); University of Murcia; University of Alicante (UA); Didactic and Interactive Science Museum Foundation of the Vega Baja del Segura of the Valencian Community (MUDIC); Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT); SÉNECA Foundation - Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia; Epistimi Epikoinonia and SiCo Cyprus.
