2018/10/17

CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE organise a seminar on the social value of science

The event was held today in Bilbao under the title “Social value of science: from knowledge to business”.Participants included Iosu Madariaga, Director of Technology and Strategy of the Basque Government, and Jesús Marco, Vice-President of Scientific and Technical Research at the CSIC. The pharmaceutical sector was represented by Gonzalo Hernández, R&D Director at Faes Farma, and Cristina Henríquez de Luna, President of GlaxoSmithKline. The debate was moderated by José M. Mato, General Director of CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE.

A seminar entitled “Social value of science: from knowledge to business”, organised by CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE, was held today in Bilbao.
Participants included Iosu Madariaga, Director of Technology and Strategy of the Basque Government, and Jesús Marco, Vice-President of Scientific and Technical Research at the CSIC. The first part of the seminar looked at the issue from the perspective of public policies on science and technology. The pharmaceutical sector was represented by Gonzalo Hernández, R&D Director at Faes Farma, and Cristina Henríquez de Luna, President of GlaxoSmithKline, who spoke of their projects for the next decade.
The debate was moderated by José M. Mato, Director General of CIC bioGUNE and CIC biomaGUNE, who emphasized that “science has a social value because its mission is to seek the truth and, through that truth, to build plans, projects and solutions.”
“One of the clearest examples of the social value of science in terms of health is the increase in life expectancy over the last one hundred years. Thanks to public health policies and the development of diagnostic and treatment tools, life expectancy has increased in all countries. In the case of Spain, life expectancy has increased by three decades. The Basque Country is a world leader in life expectancy, a position attributable to science, public health policies and their applications," said José Mato.
In the seminar, particular attention was given to the efficiency of the health system. In this regard, José Mato explained that "the percentage of GDP dedicated to health is around 9-10%. The system has to become more efficient to maintain and improve health and life expectancy. If drugs or diagnostic techniques are too expensive, they cannot be extended to the whole of society. This is one of the great challenges: to make the system more efficient and to find formulas for closer collaboration between the private and public sectors.”

About CIC bioGUNE
The Center for Cooperative Research in Biosciences (CIC bioGUNE), located in the Bizkaia Technology Park, is a biomedical research organisation conducting cutting-edge research at the interface between structural, molecular and cell biology, with a particular focus on the study of the molecular bases of disease, for use in the development of new diagnostic methods and advanced therapies. CIC bioGUNE has been accredited as a “Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence”, the highest level of recognition for centers of excellence in Spain.

About CIC biomaGUNE
The Center for Cooperative Research in Biomaterials (CIC biomaGUNE), located in the Gipuzkoa Science and Technology Park, conducts cutting-edge research at the interface between Chemistry, Biology and Physics, and particularly on the properties of molecular level biological nanostructures and their biomedical applications.

CIC biomaGUNE was accredited as a “María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence after assessment of its compliance with a series of excellence requirements characterised by a high impact and level of competitiveness in its particular field of activity and in the scientific arena worldwide. The center’s research activities are not only regularly subjected to scientific assessment processes conducted by an external and independent committee of scientists, but are frontier research actions developed in line with a strategic program. Furthermore, the centre also selects, trains and attracts talent on an international level, has active partnership and exchange agreements on an institutional level with other top-level research centers and promotes activities for the transfer and dissemination of knowledge to society at large.