IRBLleida's #SomRecerca conference, awarded as good practice for exposing the importance of citizen participation in research

the #SomRecerca Day of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida) has been one of the three activities of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) awarded by the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII). This award recognises the promotion of the active participation of society in science focused on principles of ethics, governance, gender equality, open access, citizen participation and science education.

The #SomRecerca Day seeks to promote more inclusive research and innovation with a relevant role of society in all phases of research and innovation. It is a conversation between researchers and patients or patient organisations in which they explain how their collaboration has arisen and its benefits. In this third edition, we learned about the research collaboration of a patient expert in paediatric stroke, a representative of ataxia patient associations and the manager of the Lleida Anti-AIDS Foundation. Currently, the IRBLleida is preparing the IV conference and you can find the awarded conference at this link.

The conference is part of a cycle initiated in 2019 on citizen participation in research promoted by the Agency for Health Quality and Assessment of Catalonia (AQuAS) and the Department of Health. IRBLleida is supported by the Fundació la Caixa and the Diputació de Lleida. This activity is possible thanks to the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and Innovation.

The other two projects awarded by the ISCIII are:

• 'Walking towards Open Science', a proposal of the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Fundación Jiménez Díaz (IIS-FJD), which aims to promote the practice of open science, particularly with regard to omics data - those derived from disciplines such as genomics, proteomics or metabolomics, among others - generated by research. This proposal seeks to establish policies and procedures that include the collection, management and dissemination of omics data.
• ‘Spoonfuls of evidence', a proposal of the Aragon Institute for Health Research (IIS Aragon) that aims to promote science education by providing secondary and high school students in Aragon with tools to encourage critical thinking, in order to combat myths and pseudosciences in the context of food and nutrition. The initiative generated educational strategies that facilitated the voluntary adoption of dietary and other food and nutrition-related behaviours conducive to health and well-being.

The first call for this recognition was held in 2020. The second call was opened last September and eight proposals were received. The call is aimed at recognising the work of research institutes accredited by the ISCIII to promote the alignment between research processes and their social results in order to improve the fulfilment of people's needs. For the evaluation of the proposals, the ISCIII has relied on a Strategic Evaluation Commission made up of four experts in RRI principles.

The Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) is the national and international reference in biomedical research and public health in Spain. It is the Government's Public Research Organisation in charge of funding and carrying out national biomedical research. It reports to the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, although it is also attached to the Ministry of Health, Consumption and Social Welfare. It was created in 1986 with the General Health Law and, in addition to promoting and coordinating biomedical research, it offers scientific and technical health and biomedical services to the National Health System, and has training programmes in public health, health management and scientific direction.