IRBLleida participates for the third year in the ‘Amgen TransferCiència’ educational programme for the promotion of scientific vocations

The postdoctoral researchers, Maite Caus Enríquez and Juan Miguel Diaz Tocados, from the Vascular and Renal Translational Research Group; and the predoctoral researchers, Marina Ribes from the Cell Cycle group and Marta Marqués from the GreBic group, from the Biomedical Research Institute of Lleida (IRBLleida) are participating in the fifth edition of the educational programme to promote scientific vocations Amgen TransferCiència. Specifically, Madrigueras will give a workshop and talk at the Institut Ermengol IV in Bellcaire d'Urgell; Díaz at the Institut Tierras de Poniente in Mollerussa; Ribes at the Institut Gili i Gaya in Lleida and Marqués at the Escola Arrels II in Solsona.

A total of 34 researchers, 71% of whom are women, will conduct master classes and experimental workshops in 35 schools across Spain. This team, made up of 41% postdoctoral researchers and 59% predoctoral researchers, will also provide support to teachers to improve the teaching and learning of science. The total number of students participating in the five communities will exceed 1,000 this year.

The educational programme to promote scientific vocations Amgen TransferCiència consolidates its state coverage in its sixth edition, this academic year 2024-2025, reaching 35 schools and more than a thousand students in 28 locations, 17 of them new, in five autonomous communities: Madrid, Valencia, Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Galicia.

The approach of Amgen TransferCiència is both didactic and to promote scientific vocations. Methodologically, an original and unprecedented didactic formula is applied: young scientists are incorporated in schools and institutes who work hand in hand with teachers to conceive and carry out *col-laborativament classroom activities that show scientific content in an attractive and close way, to motivate interest in scientific careers in the fields of genetics and biotechnology among students.

The face-to-face classes are combined with practical research workshops, experimental sessions supported by the use of laboratory kits, dedicated to different topics in the biotechnological field (CRISPR gene editors, ELISA tests, PCR tests, paternity tests, chromatographies, etc.). These activities are complemented, in some cases, with visits to the research centres of the participating scientists.

Consolidated coverage in all communities with 17 new locations.

In the Community of Madrid, five centres in the towns of San Sebastián de los Reyes and Madrid will host the programme's activities. In Galicia there will be another five centres. Two centres in the city of Pontevedra and another centre in A Coruña will be repeated, and for the first time a centre in Poio (Pontevedra) and another in Rábade (Lugo) will join the programme.

In the Balearic Islands, Mallorca is covered, with two new centres in Llucmajor and Binissalem, as well as Menorca, with one in Maó, and Ibiza, with two centres. In the Valencian Community, there are five centres: two in the city of Valencia, which are once again part of the programme; another two newly incorporated, located in Manises and Alaquàs (Valencia), to which is added another in Segorbe (Castelló).

In Catalonia, the total number of participating centres is 15. For the first time, Blanes, Vilafant, Lloret de Mar and Sant Joan de les Abadesses, in the province of Girona; Mollerussa, Bellcaire d'Urgell and Solsona, in Lleida; as well as Torelló, Prat de Lluçanès and Rubí in Barcelona. These are in addition to the centres already participating in previous editions, located in Valls and l'Ametlla de Mar (Tarragona); Lleida city; Barcelona city and Vic (Barcelona).

Amgen TransferCiència began as a pilot programme in the 2019-2020 academic year in three autonomous communities (Catalonia, Valencia and the Balearic Islands). In successive editions it was extended to Madrid and Galicia.