From the US to Malaga: world chemistry chooses Spain | Science | EUROtoday

Big choices in science not often make their means into the headlines. However, the switch of the headquarters of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) from the United States to Europe, with places of work in Rome and Malaga, is vital, because it brings one of many most important decision-making facilities of world science nearer to Spain and locations it in a privileged place within the international governance of chemistry.

For virtually three a long time, IUPAC has been primarily based in North Carolina, within the coronary heart of Research Triangle Park, one of many most important scientific hubs within the United States. From there, it has performed a key position in defining worldwide scientific, industrial and regulatory priorities in collaboration with UNESCO, the World Science Council and international locations around the globe.

We might have forgotten, however IUPAC is a part of our private historical past. We had our first contact together with her in school. It is within the periodic desk that we as soon as discovered and within the guidelines we examine for naming chemical compounds. Because the names and symbols of the weather have been mentioned and agreed upon by IUPAC consultants. The similar ones who created the language of chemistrywhich permits us to call any substance. But this nice scientific group is just not restricted to establishing names and symbols. Currently, it promotes greater than 180 worldwide tasks in fields as numerous as chemical schooling, sustainability or the appliance of synthetic intelligence in scientific analysis. IUPAC is usually described because the United Nations of Chemistry, because it is a crucial international discussion board during which scientific consensus is reached in an more and more fragmented world. Its goal is to construct consensus primarily based on one of the best accessible data and transfer analysis, business and public insurance policies in the direction of constructing a extra sustainable improvement.

The proven fact that this nice scientific group has its headquarters in our nation represents a terrific alternative, however it’s also the reflection of an goal actuality: the significance of Spanish chemistry within the worldwide enviornment. Although it’s usually little seen, chemistry is without doubt one of the nice strengths of Spanish science and business. According to totally different classifications, our nation is round tenth in analysis on this discipline and in addition has one of many strongest chemical industries in Europe. The sector generates greater than 700,000 jobs, represents 4.7% of the GDP, is the second largest exporter and leads industrial funding in R&D&I. Few actions have such a direct and transversal influence on our financial system. 98% of productive actions rely, in a method or one other, on chemical merchandise, from meals to automotive, from power to well being. Having the headquarters of the group that units the foundations of the chemistry recreation in our nation is an apparent aggressive benefit, if we all know how you can make the most of it, one thing that requires imaginative and prescient, coordination and ambition.

The alternative of Malaga is just not coincidental both. In latest years, the town has established itself as a technological node able to join college, business and public administrations. The arrival of IUPAC reinforces this ecosystem and tasks it internationally. But it additionally locations Spain in a privileged place to behave as bridge between Europe and Latin America. The Spanish-speaking world represents a big cultural and financial group. We share language, challenges and, in lots of instances, strategic productive sectors. The IUPAC headquarters in Malaga can turn into a rare platform to determine and strengthen joint analysis tasks, in using Spanish in science and in industrial improvement.

The different IUPAC headquarters, positioned on the National Research Council (CNR) in Rome, enhances that of Malaga and advantages Spain. This twin construction is feasible because of the truth that Europe is a shared area of foreign money and institutional frameworks, and to an extended historical past of scientific, financial and cultural collaboration between each international locations. In this context, the Malaga and Rome headquarters add capacities at a time when science is beneath assault in different elements of the world.

This switch has not been the results of an improvised choice. In June 2024, IUPAC invitations establishments and cities from around the globe to submit proposals to host its worldwide headquarters, after virtually three a long time in North Carolina. Numerous cities responded to this name, reflecting international curiosity in internet hosting the biggest scientific union on this planet. For months, the candidacies have been evaluated via a rigorous course of that included the evaluation of institutional capacities, political assist, infrastructure, authorized stability and long-term dedication, in addition to technical visits to potential headquarters. The consequence was a singular resolution: a European headquarters shared between Malaga and Rome, chosen for the complementarity of their proposals and for the solidity of the assist provided by their tutorial and public establishments. In the case of Malaga, the choice was potential because of the joint work of the University and the City Council, which knew how you can articulate a strong, engaging proposal aligned with the current and future wants of IUPAC.

In a way, the arrival of IUPAC to Spain can also be a return residence loaded with symbolism. Our nation already occupied a outstanding place in worldwide chemistry at first of the twentieth century, in the midst of the silver age of Spanish science, when in 1934 Madrid hosted the primary world chemistry congress after the Great War. At that IUPAC congress, Spain opened its doorways to world science after centuries of ostracism. More than a thousand scientists from all around the world, together with a number of Nobel laureates, got here to our invitation. Behind that effort was Enrique Molesone of many key figures of contemporary Spanish chemistry, who turned vp of the IUPAC. He, and plenty of others of his era, labored to make sure that Spain occupied a outstanding position within the worldwide scientific group. His profession, reduce quick by warfare, exile and repression, reminds us to what extent that aspiration was fragile and ephemeral. Almost a century later, the return of the IUPAC to our nation appears to shut a parenthesis that ought to by no means have been opened.

That a key establishment to face the good challenges of our time, from the combat in opposition to local weather change till the improvement of more practical and secure medicinesnow having one in every of its headquarters in Spain is just not solely a recognition of the energy of our chemistry, but additionally a accountability. If we all know how you can make the most of this chance, world chemistry is not going to solely have chosen Spain, however can have begun to jot down its future from Malaga.