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The professor of Optics Pablo Artal, National Research Award, has been in charge of reading the inaugural lesson on scientific advances for the treatment of visual health

The University of Murcia (UMU) and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) have celebrated this Tuesday, October 1, the official opening ceremony of the public universities course in the Region;

which has taken place at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the UMU, in the Espinardo Campus.

The opening of the course has been attended by the president of the Autonomous Community, Fernando López Miras;

as well as the Minister of Employment, Universities and Research, Miguel Motas.

The rector of the University of Murcia, José Luján, has delivered a speech focused on the importance and social role of the University throughout history;

from its beginnings in the middle ages to the present moment, in which the University is based on a model that combines teaching and research and that "serves society by bringing research results, in the form of studies or transfer."

Luján has remarked that "the University of the future will be teaching and research or will not be" and the important role that the institution has to "offer society solutions and security in the face of new challenges such as those that represent poverty, social inequalities, change climate, the scarcity of natural resources, globalization, artificial intelligence, industry 4.0, the fight against disease, gender equality, migration or political and economic governance. "

In order to assume this role, Luján has assured that "it is absolutely essential that universities enjoy enough autonomy to independently develop their research and teaching";

as well as that autonomy is also financial autonomy.

The rector stressed during his speech "the importance and the need to ensure regional public universities sufficient funding to ensure that they can fulfill their service mission with the solvency, quality and generosity that citizens legitimately expect from them."

Luján explained to the university community present at the event that 2020 is the last year of the current multiannual financing plan of the public universities of the Region of Murcia and, "therefore, it is inevitable to start specifying the bases of the new financing plan A basis that must necessarily have as a reference, on the one hand, a rigorous evaluation of the plan still in force and, on the other, the strategic challenges that universities must face in the coming years. "

Among these new strategic challenges Luján has pointed out the possibility of "offering titles that respond to the current demands of professional qualification and internationalization and the implementation of a human resources policy that improves the structure of the staff, with special attention to the problem of associated teachers and the need to capture and retain talent for research. "

For his part, the rector of the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Alejandro Díaz Morcillo, has taken advantage of his speech to claim "a new University Law, which provides universities with tools to respond to the main social challenges and the competitive international university environment ".

In this regard, Díaz Morcillo explained that the UPCT has begun drafting the Strategic Plan 2021 2025 of the UPCT, whose final text will be approved at the end of the year.

This plan, he said, will be aligned with the new Financing Plan of the Public Universities of the Region and with the European Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon Europe, which will mark the financing policy of R & D & I in the Union European until 2027.

In relation to the Financing Plan of the public universities of the Region, Díaz has shown his commitment to the work and effort of the university community. "The universities want to win, deserve the financial support of our society," he said.

The rector has also called for a powerful program contract based on the accountability of universities based on strategic objectives of interest to the Region. "At the same time he has requested that the level of investment in new infrastructure and maintenance of these be recovered. that existed before the crisis. "

Artal pronounces the inaugural lesson

Professor Pablo Artal, Professor of Optics at the University of Murcia and National Research Prize, has been in charge of reading the inaugural lesson, entitled 'Science to improve our vision'.

Artal, who this year celebrated the 25th anniversary of his arrival at the institution and the creation of the Optics Laboratory he directs, explained to the audience the particularities of the visual system, the problems it poses and everything that research and science have Made to improve vision.

"Science and technology go hand in hand with medicine to have better treatments and solutions for patients. In the case of cataracts we have an example of how a dramatic and unresolved problem until relatively recently, has become something simple through the 'lever' of innovations, "said Artal.

In this matter the contributions of the researcher and his team were fundamental.

The UMU professor has advanced to the attendees who in the Optics laboratory are "immersed in other very interesting projects such as understanding and preventing the development of myopia in children".

Thus, Artal has also explained to the audience questions about the innovations and trials that are being carried out around retinal-related diseases and research lines based on optigenetics.

Rector Luján has thanked and congratulated Artal's lesson, whom he has defined as a person whose vital realization is based "through knowledge, work and effort."

The president of the Autonomous Community, Fernando López Miras, has been responsible for closing the event.

The head of the regional Executive has encouraged in his speech to "join forces" to provide universities with more resources "that make it possible to go further."

"We are already working on a new multiannual financing plan for universities for the period 2021-2025 and that must contemplate new objectives that allow us to go beyond the quality of teaching and set objectives, even more ambitious, in research", stressed the president of the Community, who explained that it is a plan agreed with the University of Murcia (UMU) and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) and that "will mark the lines of work that will direct university policy in the next years".

The act of opening the course began with the reading of the memory of activities of the last course of the universities by the general secretaries of both institutions.

The event has had the music of the Vocal Ensemble of the Choir and the Orchestra of the University of Murcia that, under the direction of Jorge Losana, has performed a Boccherini repertoire in homage to the Count of Floridablanca.

Source: Universidad de Murcia