Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence sign at CNIO / Laura M. Lombardía. CNIO.
The State Research Agency has renewed the accreditation, which includes a €4.500.000 grant to be implemented over four years.
Aditonally,10 grants have been awarded to fund predoctoral staff contracts.
This is a very demanding call, which evaluates the scientific excellence of the accredited centres.
The Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) has been awarded the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation for the fourth time in a row. So has been published by the State Research Agency, affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities in the resolution to the 2024 ‘Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence’ and ‘ María de Maeztu Units of Excellence’ call, whose accreditations give credit to each the best scientific centers and units in the country.
This accreditation will be valid for six years, starting April, the 1st 2025, and includes two types of funding: a grant for actions to strength the institution, amounting to €4.5 million to be implemented over four years, and also ten grants for the training of predoctoral research staff, aligned with priority research areas, each worth €125,000. The latter will fund contracts of up to four years, which will begin once the selected candidates join the centre.
Acknowledging cutting-edge research
As stated on its website, the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities “awards the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence and María de Maeztu Unit of Excellence accreditations with the aim of promoting the quality of Spanish scientific research by recognising leading centres and units that stand out for the relevance and international impact of the research results obtained during the previous reference period.”
The Severo Ochoa Excellence Centres and María de Maeztu Excellence Units are evaluated and chosen by an international scientific committee whose members are renowned experts. The certification is valid for four years. Every four years, the centres or units must enter the competition again to have their certification renewed.
In addition to CNIO, these are the institutions that have been certified as Severo Ochoa Excellence Centres in the 2024 call: Institut for High Energy Physics (IFAE), the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), Barcelona School of Economics (BSE), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM -CSIC), in Catalonia; the Institut for Material Sciences (ICMM-CSIC), both in Madrid; the Donostia Internacional Physics Center Foundation, in the Basque Country, and the Doñana Biological (EBD), in Andalusia.