Lourdes Reig Puig
Dr. in Marine Sciences | CREDA Communication Manager
For those of us who work in education, the year always seems to start in September. The energy we’ve renewed over the holidays not only fuels new ideas, but also makes us feel more capable of seeing them through — despite everything, despite the lockdowns, the remote work we still haven’t mastered, the outbreaks that still threaten us. In university and research, life must go on because we truly believe that society cannot progress without them.
This fresh academic year we’re kick-starting the CREDA blog, a space shared by the entire community of our research centre, where we would like for you to get to know us. We want to explain our vision of the world, our way of seeing things beyond what we can discuss in scientific articles.
We will talk about the research areas we work on, but also about what concerns us and keeps us busy beyond them, about our interests in the exciting and endless world of agri-food and sustainability, of research and university. We will allow ourselves to expand on topics that can hardly fit into the rigid formality of a scientific paper. Perhaps we will offer opinions, which by their subjective nature are also absent from our rigorous scientific communications — although these opinions are always born from our knowledge and experience. This will all be unscripted and won’t follow a strict editorial calendar, but rather we’ll aim to respond to events happening out there, beyond the invisible walls of our projects and our theses.
The CREDA blog is designed to lend a voice to its people, to show off the team, our quality and diversity. Here, everyone within CREDA will share the spotlight; when they have something to tell, this will be their space. Because, what is CREDA if not its people? Our institution, like so many others, doesn’t have a baseline funding that tops up every month or year. Every cycle we start almost from scratch, except for a small guaranteed percentage which accounts for less than 10% of our yearly budget. We rely on the personal effort of each researcher to secure projects and carry them out, to build networks and alliances that make us stronger, to publish results that increase our scientific and professional standing.
The issues we work on depend on the projects, contracts and alliances obtained by the people at CREDA. There are no predetermined lines of research, but rather interests or opportunities that each member of CREDA has known how to take advantage of or enhance. And I think that we tend to disregard this effort — our personal contribution should fill us with pride and make us feel part of CREDA’s success. Let’s not lose sight of the forest for the trees! That’s why, in this blog, consecutive entries will shine the spotlight on each of the people who make up the team.
For now, we promise only interesting ideas, our knowledge accrued over more or less years of experience, and our sincere opinions, whenever we think sharing them can make a difference. If this sounds good, you know where to find us. Let’s get started!