Francisco Saborido Rey re-elected as director in the Institute of Marine Research

Santiago de Compostela/Vigo, 17th November, 2022. Francisco Saborido Rey was re-elected director of the Marine Research Institute (IIM) for the next four years. The management team that will accompany him in this stage is made up of four vice-directors, two new members and other two who continue the work of the last four years.

"The objective of the management project is to carry out concrete actions that allow us to achieve the objectives that we have set for ourselves in the IIM Strategic Plan, prepared this year and which, once approved by the faculty, will be in force until 2026 ", explains Saborido , who adds that "among the objectives of this direction for the coming years is to continue promoting quality science, seeking a sustainable environment inside and outside the workplace, and the achievement of an important milestone: the transfer of the IIM to its new headquarters in ETEA ( Teis )”.

“The role of management is to act as a 'great unit to the IIM's Research Service'. Therefore , the project must create, develop or strengthen the tools to achieve the mission of the IIM, generate and transfer knowledge to create a more sustainable society ”, says the director.

The management team that will accompany him during the next four years changes in its structure and members.

The Research Deputy Director is now called Strategy and Scientific Transfer, with the researcher Marta López Cabo, head of the Microbiology and Technology of Marine Products group, as responsible. Thus replaces Eva Balsa Canto.

The Institutional Organization sub-directorate (former Organization sub-directorate) continues to be headed by José M. Fernández Babarro , head of the Ecophysiology , Biomarkers and Sustainable Bivalve Management group. to her the new deputy director of Infrastructures and Sustainability joins the helm to the researcher Sonia Dios Vidal, from the Marine Molecular Pathobiology group.

The  Scientific Culture the Deputy Director continues, headed by Xosé Pintado Valverde, researcher in Ecology and Marine Resources, who already began the project of this vice-directorship four years ago, this was consolidated with the creation and accreditation, by the Spanish Foundation for the Science and Technology (FECYT), of the Scientific Culture Unit (UCC+I) of the IIM. "It is the second Unit of this type of the CSIC in Galicia and the first property of a CSIC institute in a community", they emphasize from the IIM.

A project with four objectives to achieve the mission of IIM

The first major objective of the management project will be to complete the transfer of the institute to its new headquarters in the old ETEA, in the Ríos neighborhood ( Teis , Vigo). The current headquarters of the Institute was planned for 150 people, a number far exceeded by the more than 200 members of the current staff.

Secondly, it seeks to promote quality, innovative and sustainable science, "with a competitive workforce, a common research strategy and an increase in our rate of innovation, transfer and advice for sustainability", says Francisco Saborido Rey.

Third, they will seek to strengthen strategic interactions in three highly competitive geographical areas: the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion, the State as a whole and the international arena. "Thus, it seeks to consolidate and increase the great advances achieved in the last direction with the creation of specialized units and the execution of actions focused on improving the connections of the IIM with culture, society, administration, politics, management, the industry, technology and markets, among other sectors”, underline the management team.

“One of ours has the objectives of promoting Galicia as an international hub for marine research, reinforcing collaboration with the research bodies of the Xunta de Galicia, the three Universities and our colleagues from the IEO. This collaboration will be especially relevant in Vigo, with the University, both institutions with the aim of consolidating the marine sciences campus at ETEA and placing the city at the forefront of marine research”, explains Saborido , who points out in this sense that the IIM management coordinates the Galician Marine Science Program, endowed with €10 million and in which all marine research institutions participate in the community _

finally , with the support of the new vice-director, he will try to find a sustainable work environment, with fair conditions and appropriate to the reality of the Institute. As the new team points out, "any challenge that seeks to address scientific and technological challenges can only be carried out in a dignified, fair, green and digital work environment."

Francisco Saborido Rey (Ares, 1966)

Francisco Saborido Rey (Ares, 1966) has a degree (1988) and a PhD (1994) in Biology from the Autonomous University of Madrid. He began his research work at the IIM in 1989. In 2006 he obtained a CSIC tenured scientific position at the aforementioned center. Between 2012 and 2015 he developed his research work on King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia through a research stay.

yours _ lines of research address the study of the fisheries ecology of exploited species (cod , halibut, halibut and fish) but also of coastal and tropical species, with the ultimate goal of advising the State on the resources and measures to achieve exploitation sustainable .

He was responsible for the Fisheries Ecology research group (2000-2008), the year in which said group was integrated into the Ecology and Marine Resources group, of which he was responsible until 2018, the year in which he assumed the direction of the IIM and handed over the direction of the group to researcher Graham Pierce.

He participated in 75 research projects, of which he directed 52, 32 of them international. His _ scientific production includes 158 publications and 83 papers, as well as the supervision of nine doctoral theses.