The Institute
The Biodiversity and Environment Institute (BIOMA) was born in December 2019 driven by the need to have a center multidisciplinary to respond, from the scientific evidence, to the main environmental challenges that our planet is facing, such as the climate changethe loss of biodiversitythe contaminationthe deforestationthe soil degradationor the invasive alien species.
Nowadays, nobody doubts that in order to carry out an environmental research of excellence it is necessary to constitute multidisciplinary teams that include professionals in biology, Chemistry, geology, physics, law, sociology, agriculture, technology, Philosophy, geography, architecture, Economics, politics, etc., necessary to apply a holistic approach to environmental problems and provide consensual and integral solutions.
This new way of working directly affects researchers, who must abandon the old way of studying the environmental spheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere and biosphere) in isolation to do so in a unitary manner, taking into account the multitude of relationships that exist between them.
Precisely, the dizzying development of new technologies in recent years, through techniques such as big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the use of large computing systems, has shown that the processes occurring in nature present complex interactions, hence the need to address them in a comprehensive manner.
In addition to the multidisciplinarity, another aspect of great importance for the high school is the environmentalEducation and the awareness of citizens as a preliminary step towards a change of behavior in favor of a more respectful future with our environment. In this task, closely linked to the Science Museum, several communication actions and citizen science projects are developed to guarantee the Education of citizens towards a more sustainable future.
Finally, a third pillar of the new high school is to become a point of meeting between the academic world, administrations, companies and society, promoting environmental awareness at different scales and contributing to our Community becoming a reference in the study and conservation of ecosystems and biodiversity.
BIOMA is currently composed of 60 specialists from different areas of research, issue which will gradually increase with the incorporation of new professionals in the environmental field. This new challenge fills us with enthusiasm and we will do our best to humbly contribute to preserve the most precious gift we have, life.
Jesús Miguel Santamaría