The Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo was chosen to host the Interdisciplinary Advances in Health Conference on June 13 and 14, aimed at analyzing the convergence between advanced materials and biotechnology.
This conference was organized by the management body of the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Health, in collaboration with IBEC and the University of Castilla-La Mancha.
Castilla-La Mancha is an ideal community for the union of these two sciences, as there are many entities focused on these two technologies, making the synergies that can be achieved through collaboration between both parties essential.
As explained by Valentín Ceña, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Albacete and coordinator of the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Health of Castilla-La Mancha, the conference showcased the progress achieved in these two structures created by the government using transformation and resilience funds to promote cross-disciplinary research. He also indicated that the purpose of this conference is to enhance collaboration between both Complementary Plans to generate new therapeutic compounds that can provide effective treatments for various pathologies that currently lack them.
For her part, Esther Vázquez Fernández-Pacheco, a professor at the Faculty of Chemical Sciences and Technologies of Ciudad Real and coordinator of the Complementary Plan for Advanced Materials of Castilla-La Mancha, emphasized the convergence of research. “The idea is that not only the people of Castilla-La Mancha but also those from different autonomous communities, working from different areas, can contribute solutions to health-related problems.”
Numerous researchers participated in the conference, along with Raquel Yotti, commissioner of the PERTE Vanguard Health, and Eloísa del Pino, president of CSIC.
Sam Stupp from Northwestern University in Chicago, gave the lecture “Bioactive materials for regenerative medicine,” an interesting talk on the application of bioactive materials in biomedicine and regenerative medicine.
Additionally, Ramón Martínez, a member of CIBERBBN, explained the ARISTOS and Nanbiosis Programs, two infrastructures created for the design, production, and characterization of nanomaterials, biomaterials, and biomedicine.
Research in Castilla-La Mancha.
In the past year, Castilla-La Mancha has received over 58 million euros, which has allowed the development of 40 R&D projects.
During the conference, the rector of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Julián Garde, emphasized the importance of complementary plans within this budget, as they arise “with a cross-disciplinary and interdisciplinary spirit in terms of diversity of lines, groups, and financing.” He noted that the plans are co-financed by the Government of Spain and the autonomous communities, which is “a good measure to align research policies” and highlighted the collaboration between the two plans coordinated by UCLM, which also participates in the Complementary Plan for Renewable Energy and Hydrogen, led by the National Hydrogen Center (CNH2).
The Minister of Education, Culture, and Sports of the Junta of Communities of Castilla-La Mancha, Amador Pastor Noheda, presented the progress in research support carried out by the Autonomous Community of Castilla-La Mancha in recent years, characterized by a marked increase in investment in promoting various research-related areas. The inaugural event was also attended, among others, by the Director General of Research, Universities, and Innovation, Ricardo Cuevas, and the Director of the Research Agency of Castilla-La Mancha, Juan Antonio Castro.
The conference created one-to-one meeting spaces between different research groups in both biotechnology and materials to find future avenues for collaboration.
