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The Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the University of Valencia (UCC+i UV) has received the University Management and Good Administrative Practices award, granted yesterday by the Social Council of the academic institution and delivered within the framework of the XXIII University-Society Awards. The award recognises the actions of improvement and innovation made by the unit to modernise the University of Valencia, made according to the needs of the educational community.
The prize was awarded by María Emilia Adán, president of the Social Council of the University of Valencia, to Soledad Rubio, director of the UCC+ i, at an event held at the headquarters of the ADEIT Foundation attended by the president of the Valencian Government, Ximo Puig and the rector of the University of Valencia, Mavi Mestre. With these awards, the best collaboration practices between the university and society are recognised.
“We strive so that the research carried out in the University of Valencia has the visibility it deserves and contributes to improve the scientific culture of citizens”, Soledad Rubio said at the award ceremony yesterday. In addition, the award is “a clear sign of the sensitivity of the Social Council regarding the role that universities play in the dissemination of science”, said the director.
Mavi Mestre congratulated the winners and recognised the work of the Social Council to open the University of Valencia to society in the context of the 520 years of the academic institution. Ximo Puig, for his part, said that the Social Council begins a new phase to strengthen itself with the presidency of Maria Emilia Adán, and recalled that the University of Valencia is one of the great assets of the Valencian people. In addition, Maria Emilia Adán, president of the Social Council of the University of Valencia, will highlight the more than twenty years that the institution has been rewarding and recognising personalities and institutions that have contributed to make the relationship between UV and society stronger.
The Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit of the Universitat de València annually organises more than 200 dissemination activities like workshops, conferences, morning sessions, courses and seminars. In addition, it manages the Estudi General European Award for the Dissemination of Science, participates in dissemination, scientific communication and research projects, and annually produces more than one hundred news about research at the University of Valencia. Likewise, this year it has organised the 1st Doctoral Theses Dissemination Conference of the University of Valencia.
Eligibility criteria
The criteria that have been followed to award the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Valencia are the practical applicability of university management, the interest and originality of the initiative, the impact on the improvement of the units, the simplification of administrative processes and the harmonisation with the statutory values of the University of Valencia. This is an honorary award.
Trajectory of the UCC+i
The Chair of Dissemination and Public Communication of Science or Chair of Dissemination of Science is the antecedent of the UCC+i of the University of Valencia. Created on January 29, 2002 through an agreement between the University of Valencia and the Cañada Blanch Foundation, its objective was to promote teaching, research and public dissemination of scientific knowledge among citizens. At that time, only Oxford University had a similar chair, called Public Understanding of Science.
In 2007, the Scientific Policy Cabinet was accredited as Scientific Culture and Innovation Unit by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), recognition that has been continuously maintained since then. In March 2018, the FECYT, an entity under the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, renewed the accreditation of the UCC+i UV as a dynamic entity in the transmission of science, technology and innovation from an informative and informative perspective open to the public.
Scientific dissemination projects
Among the activities carried out by the UCC+i of the University of Valencia, there are projects for scientific dissemination, scientific communication and research. Among the dissemination ones, some are aimed at primary education, such as el Cofre de la Mar (to know the environmental and cultural values of the Mediterranean), and others to secondary education, such as Stimulating Scientific Vocations, a series of lectures given by university professors; or the Mathematical Routes, itineraries through Valencia that, through the monumental heritage of the city, show the applications of science and in which more than 30,000 people have participated since 2004.
Scientific communication and research projects
In addition, the UCC+i University of Valencia has launched a communication strategy that focuses on deploying three axes with which it aims to enhance its presence in the institution, in the media and in local and national society. Thus, press releases and news about the research activity of the University of Valencia are produced, and on the other hand, videos in which the research staff explains their work.
In terms of research projects, the unit is part of the European research project CONCISE, led by Carolina Moreno, which works on 4 themes: vaccines, alternative and complementary medicine, climate change and genetically modified organisms. The main objective of CONCISE is to know what is the origin of beliefs, perceptions and knowledge on specific issues related to science and technology among European citizens.
Mentions
Among others, the UCC+i of the University of Valencia has received the award for the best science dissemination script 2010 in Telenatura and has been a finalist in the SCIENMA 2010 festival with the documentary Tras la huella de Darwin. It has also won the prize for the best informative project 2012 with the Mathematical Routes. Likewise, the UCC+i has won the award for the best informative project 2015, granted by the FECyT, with Encuentros con la Maleta de la Ciencia, which proposes 10 experiments with water and 10 with air, made with recyclable materials, and of easy replacement and classified as very easy, easy and entertaining.
Also, the book Jugar a ser Dios, from the scientific dissemination collection «Sin fronteras», won the prize for the best work of scientific dissemination of the XIX National University Edition Awards. To this we must add that in the Report on the impact of UCC+i on the Public Visibility of Spanish Science, prepared by the Centre for the Study of Science, Scientific Culture and Innovation and the University of Salamanca, the Scientific Culture Unit of the University of Valencia is the entity of Spain linked to the dissemination that has a greater presence in the media in terms of journalistic pieces published in the regional digital press.
Other winners
In the awards ceremony of the XXIII University-Society Awards, the previous president of the Social Council, Manuel Broseta, was also honoured. The professor and researcher José Viña, Professor of Physiology at the University of Valencia, was awarded in the Research and Development category, for his R & D collaboration project with the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS). Pilar de la Oliva, president of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community since 2010, was distinguished in the AlumniPlus-Alumni modality of the University of Valencia. Currently De la Oliva is the only woman in charge of a Superior Court of Justice and the second in the history of Spain.
The Trajectory of Collaboration University-Society modality has awarded the Tirant lo Blanch Publishing House for its long history of collaboration with the University of Valencia and its teaching staff. On the other hand, the Institutional and Business Chairs of the University of Valencia was awarded to the Würth EMC Chair, the first International Chair of the University, in operation since 2015, and which constitutes a wide-ranging collaboration between the company Würth Elektronik eiSos and the University.
The Alumni Plus modality is aimed at recognising the contribution of ideas and innovative projects among the students of the University of Valencia in the field of university-society collaboration. This year the winners in this modality have been Sonia Jiménez Hortelano, Doctorate student of History of Art; Samuel López Carril, PhD student of Physical Activity and Sports Sciences; and Francisco Crespo Hernández, student of the Degree in Psychology. In addition, the jury has awarded the Excellent Student Award of the University of Valencia, endowed with one thousand Euros, to Daniel Pérez Casero, a double degree student of Law and Political Science.
Finally, the awards for Teaching Excellence, aimed at recognising the teaching work of the faculty of the University of Valencia, have relapsed this year to Laura Ballester Miquel, from the Department of Financial and Actuarial Economics; Francisco Grimaldo Moreno, from the Department of Information Technology; Eva López Terrada, from the Department of Labour and Social Security Law; Ana Isabel Lloret Alcañiz, Department of Physiology; and Alexandra Valencia Peris, from the Department of Didactics of Musical, Plastic and Body Expression.
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