The "la Caixa" Foundation provides 1.5 million euros for the BIOMA Center at the University of Madrid.

The "la Caixa" Foundation will contribute 1.5 million euros to the building and equipping of the BIOMA Center at the University of Navarra. The entity and the academic center have signed an agreement, which the University will thank with the nomination of a research space. It will be located on the first floor of the BIOMA Center and will be called the "la Caixa" Foundation Space for Biodiversity and Environmental Research, and will house the large equipment laboratory and the instrumentation laboratory, as well as adjoining work spaces. Work on the BIOMA Center is scheduled to begin during the 2023-24 academic year.

The University's Salón de Grados hosted the signing of the agreement by the general director of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Antonio Vila, and the president of the Association of Friends, Alfonso Sánchez-Tabernero. At the event, the rector , María Iraburu, thanked the "la Caixa" Foundation "for its generosity in collaborating with this project with which the University wants to contribute to sustainability and the environment with the contribution of science and from a humanistic approach, open to debate and dialogue with other sciences".

For his part, the general director of the "la Caixa" Foundation, Antonio Vila, emphasized: "At the "la Caixa" Foundation we are convinced that science and social welfare are two inseparable realities. Science is synonymous with progress and health, and in the hands of the University of Navarra it is also synonymous with excellence and rigor. We are very pleased to be part of this project.

Prior to the signing of the agreement, the attendees held a meeting at the BIOMA Center's observation deck, next to the University's Science Building, where they learned more about the project on the ground.

A space for teaching, research and scientific dissemination.

The BIOMA Center is a project that combines research, training and environmental and scientific dissemination in a single 13,000 m2 space to be built next to the Cima. With a budget of 30 million euros, the building will devote a third of the space to teaching, another third to environmental research and a third area will be dedicated to the Science Museum and scientific dissemination activities. It will also have its own Innovation Factory, for the promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation.