La investigadora Sarah Teichmann.
We tell how CNIO Arte has become a source of funding for science of excellence at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO).
Thanks to CNIO Arte, the CNIO has been able to hire 8 postdoctoral researchers through the philanthropic platform CNIO Friends. In a way, these researchers have done science thanks to the 'love of art' of philanthropic individuals.
The program is financed thanks to the support of private entities collaborating with the CNIO that specifically want to support this action. In no case is it financed with money from donations. Donations are used entirely for the recruitment of research personnel.
The human body has about 37 trillion cells. Recently, the scientific journal Nature published the first ‘atlas’ that included all of them, a key achievement for medicine in which thousands of scientists have collaborated. Its leader is the biologist Sarah Teichmann, protagonist of CNIO Arte 2021 together with the artist Daniel Canogar. “Participating in this CNIO project made us think differently, reflect on how to explain in a clearer way all the work on the atlas (…) it was a very fun and enriching experience,” Teichmann stated at the time.
Here we tell what CNIO Arte is, and how it has succeeded in becoming a source of funding for science of excellence at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center (CNIO). Thanks to CNIO Arte, the CNIO has been able to hire 8 postdoctoral researchers through the philanthropic platform CNIO Friends. In a way, these researchers have done science thanks to the ‘love of art’ of philanthropic individuals.
What is CNIO Arte: It is a CNIO purpose-determined initiative that aims to disseminate the importance of science to society and raise funds for cancer research at the CNIO. The CNIO encourages contact between scientists and leading international artists. This interaction results in the creation of a work of art by the artist.
How it is financed: The CNIO Arte program is financed thanks to the support of private entities collaborating with the CNIO that specifically want to finance this action. In its first two editions it has also had the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology – Ministry of Science. Other actions related to the work of CNIO Arte, such as the stand at the ARCO fair or the transfer of temporary exhibitions, are also financed by CNIO’s collaborating entities in each action.
CNIO Arte brings funds, expands the CNIO’s heritage and gives visibility to the CNIO: The CNIO has a philanthropy program, CNIO Friends. Donations from our Friends go entirely to research, and these contributions have made it possible to create the CNIO Friends Contract Program, which incorporates researchers who work to understand, prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. Since its inception, CNIO Friends has made it possible to hire 42 researchers.
A regular donation of 100,000 euros to the CNIO Friends Contract Program derives specifically from the existence of CNIO Arte. In this way, the CNIO has raised 704,000 euros since the beginning of CNIO Arte, an amount that has allowed the CNIO to hire 8 postdoctoral researchers to date.
More dissemination thanks to CNIO Arte: The success of this program has led to it having its own stand at one of the main international exhibitions, the ARCO fair. Actions have also been launched with cultural institutions of great international impact, such as the traveling exhibition on display at the Cervantes Institute’s headquarters in New York, Chicago, and Warsaw (currently underway), as well as in Washington. The funds for these actions come from their collaborators in each case.
These actions, which have obtained relevant repercussions in the media and social networks, also result in visibility for the research carried out at the CNIO. CNIO Arte increases the CNIO’s social impact and promotes the dissemination of knowledge to society in general.
Who owns the works of CNIO Arte: The works of art resulting from each edition are donated by the artist to the CNIO, for a market value of around 30,000 euros, with a final purpose to raise funds for the CNIO. In other words, the artists donate their creation to the CNIO and in no case does the CNIO buy art.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41594-021-00587-5Science and art in the world: CNIO Arte is a pioneer in Spain, but there are other scientific institutions around the world that carry out similar activities and initiatives. Among them are the British Crick Institute; the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) – “Arts at CERN”; “Crossing Art with Science” of the Champalimaud Foundation (Portugal); “Science and Art” of the University of Queensland (Australia); or “smART Space” of the Oklahoma Museum of Science (USA). Prestigious scientific publications such as Nature have echoed and highly valued these initiatives.
Structural at the CNIO: all actions and agreements with artists and institutions collaborating with CNIO Arte are approved by the CNIO Board of Trustees, through its Delegate Commission, thus demonstrating the importance that the center attaches to the dissemination of science to society.