Members of the SOMMa Board at the General Assembly on 11 October. From left to right: Luis Vega (BCAM), María José Sanz (BC3), former president of SOMMa, Antonio Molina (CBGP), new president of the Alliance, and Javier Aramayba (ICMAT), current second vice-president.
The SOMMa Alliance, made up of Spanish research centres and units accredited with the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu seal of excellence by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, including the ICMAT, has renewed its presidency for the next two years. Javier Aramayona, director of the ICMAT and senior scientist at the CSIC, joins as second vice-president, along with Antonio Molina, scientific director of the Severo Ochoa programme at the Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomics (UPM-INIA/CSIC), as president, and Isabel Márquez, scientific director of the Severo Ochoa programme at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA), as first vice-president. Aramayona is the first mathematician to form part of the SOMMa presidency.
‘SOMMa is a fundamental instrument for structuring Spanish research and increasing its scientific and management cohesion. One of our main tasks is to act as a bridge between the scientific community and the decision-making bodies in scientific policy,’ says Aramayona. It currently brings together 68 Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence and María de Maeztu Units of Excellence, ‘which is an all-time high,’ he says.
Antonio Molina assures that ‘it is a source of pride and a great responsibility to work together with the centres and units of excellence in transmitting to the managers of scientific policy and funding proposals that improve the country’s science, technology and innovation system. Better science and greater innovation promote social and economic development. Molina takes over the presidency from María José Sanz (BC3), who has completed her two-year term of office.
The decision was announced at the SOMMa General Assembly on 11 October, as part of the 100xCiencia8 congress held in Palma de Mallorca.
SOMMa
The SOMMa alliance brings together 68 Severo Ochoa Centres of Excellence and María de Maeztu Units of Excellence that carry out cutting-edge research in Spain thanks to the work of more than 13,000 researchers from different disciplines.
Its aim is to promote Spanish science by recognising existing cutting-edge research centres, as well as helping them to increase their impact and international scientific leadership and competitiveness.
Severo Ochoa Excellence
In 2024 the ICMAT has been accredited, for the fourth consecutive time, as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, through the State Research Agency (AEI). Having achieved this distinction again ‘represents a tremendous recognition of the scientific work carried out by the Institute since its creation in 2007,’ commented Aramayona.
In all of Spain, only two research centres have won four consecutive awards – the ICMAT and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB) – which means that they have received Severo Ochoa funding uninterruptedly since the creation of this programme in 2011.
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