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The López Piñero Interuniversitary Institute for Science Studies is an academic institution which supports research projects and outreach activities on historical and social studies on medicine, technology, science and the environment. The Institute is located in a restored 18th century palace in the centre of the city of Valencia, where the Historical-Medical Library and the Scientific-Medical Collection of the University of Valencia are located, with permanent and temporary monographic exhibitions.

The origins of the Institute López Piñero can be traced back to the chair on history of medicine held by Professor José María López Piñero (1933-2010) during the 1960s. This chair was the nucleus of the Institute of History of Medicine created during the 1970s with the support of the cultural institution Alfons el Magnànim (Valencia Provincial Council). The centre continued to grow with new scholars and, in 1985, Professor López Piñero became the first director of a joined centre of the University of Valencia and the Spanish Center for Advanced Studies (CSIC): the Institute of Historical and Documentary Studies on Science. The new center included a research library and a history of medicine Museum as well as an Information Research Centre on Biomedicine, which was under the direction of the professor María Luz Torrada Ferrandis. The main goals of the centre were the study of scientific and medical activity from Antiquity to the current days, with particular attention to the making of comprehensible bibliographic lists of scientific publications in the Iberian Peninsula since modern times until present; and the research on indicators of scientific activity and medical practice, the creation of databases (including the IME (Índice Médico Español), and the Bibliography of the History of Science), the study of scientific terminology and the analysis of scientific and medical information, as well as many other research projects on history of science, technology and medicine.

The Institute was restructured again in 2008. The new structure was focused on the history of medicine and science. It includes the magnificent Vicent Peset I Llorca Historico-Medical Library and the new Museum on the History of Medicine and Science (Universitat de València). It was renamed as Institut d’Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero, as a joined centre of the Universitat de València and the CSIC. This new structure involved new research projects and a renovated scientific identity, which was reinforced by the incorporation of new staff. During these years, the centre was relocated to its current headquarters in a restored eighteen-century building, Palau de Cerveró, located in the historic centre of Valencia.

On January 30, 2017, the Governing Council of the Universitat de València, after a very positive report by the state agency (ANECA), approved the procedure for the creation of the Institut Interuniversitari López Piñero (IILP), a joined inter-universitary centre including groups from the Universities of Alacant, Miguel Hernández (Elx), València and Jaume I (Castelló). The centre was also positively evaluated by the Valencian Government in May 2018 and, finally, the DOGV 21 November 2018 decree created the López Piñero Interuniversitary Institute for Social and Historical Studies on Science, Technology, Medicine and the Environment (Institut Interuniversitari López Piñero d’Estudis Històrics i Socials, sobre Ciència, Tecnologia, Medicina i Medi Ambient, IILP). Combining long academic tradition with the novelties of the latest trends in the area, the centre continues to support academic research, critical thinking, pedagogical innovation, equal opportunities, innovative outreach activities, as well as the preservation and study of the bibliographic heritage and material culture related to science, technology and medicine.

The objectives of the Institute are:

  • To develop and foster research activity related to historical and social studies on medicine and science.
  • To offer postgraduate teaching (at master's and doctoral level) in the field of the history of science and scientific communication, within the framework of the University of Valencia's Official Postgraduate Programmes.
  • To carry out activities to disseminate and popularise scientific culture.
  • To preserve, study and propagate our historico-medical and historico-scientific heritage, by digitalising printed texts, cataloguing and studying the collection of medical and scientific instruments and disseminating our bibliographical and documentary holdings.

  • Objectives of the INTER-UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE LÓPEZ PIÑERO:

  • Promoting research.
  • Organising post-graduate and doctoral courses, specialised courses, sessions, seminars and congresses.
  • Promoting the dissemination and transference of the results of research within the field of the corresponding lines of work.
  • Elaborating reports and decisions on request of public and private institutions.
  • Elaborating didactic materials relevant for the organisation of courses, seminars and other educational activities.
  • Establishing permanent relationships with other Spanish and international institutes and centres of research.
  • In general, promoting any initiative aiming to support study and research.
  • Promoting and developing activities of dissemination related to the fields of research.
  • Conducting activities related to the tangible and intangible bibliographical heritage linked to its field.