Nearly 300 high school students from Lleida attended the 4th INspiracy Lleida conference to stimulate interest in scientific research

Nearly 300 high school students from the Lleida area today attended the 4th INspiracy Lleida conference, a day dedicated to disseminating local research and stimulating interest in research among first-year high school students in the Ponent area, organised by the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida (IRBLleida). The Auditorium of the Centre for Cultures and Cross-Border Cooperation (Cappont Campus of the University of Lleida) hosted the event today, which could also be followed online through the YouTube channel BCNspiracy.

The conference, which is possible thanks to the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, has the collaboration of the Institute of Education Sciences of the University of Lleida and is under the coordination of the BCNspiracy team and the popular science association 'Hablando de Ciencia'. The first doctor of medicine in Spain, Martina Castells, from Lleida, has been the guiding thread of the different informative sessions in the field of research.

The vice-rector of Knowledge Transfer of the UdL, Olga Martín Belloso, and the director of the Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida, Diego Arango del Corro, have inaugurated the day.

Research professionals from CERCA centres in Catalonia such as the Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology (IRTA) and the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) gave talks on such varied topics as 'The importance of healthy soil for the planet and its inhabitants' by Georgina Alins from IRTA and 'Climate communication and innovative scientific communication' by Andrea Arnal from CREAF.

Attendees were also able to enjoy talks on 'Letters are science and women prove it' by Sheila Queralt from the SQ-Linguists Forensic Laboratory and the University of Vic - University of Central Catalonia (UVic-UCC); 'Dairy production in a state of emergency', by Roger Palacín, veterinarian at the University of Lleida (UdL), 'Towards the elimination of cervical cancer' by Joan Valls Marsal, Institute of Biomedical Research of Lleida (IRBLleida), 'Hidroponent: Preventing dehydration in the face of climate change in the Lands of Lleida' by Cristina Vallés Carvajal from the UoL and IRBLleida, 'What can we learn from the longest-living person in the world? by Eloy Santos from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (Carreras Research) and 'The beauty of chemistry and the structure of materials' by Jonny Richardson from the University of Edinburgh.

The activity is made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.