Sponsors
GOVERNMENT OF NAVARRA
Our team is sponsored by Government of Navarra through its educative program called Planeta STEM, whose objective is to encourage youngsters to choose and study scientific and technological degrees. The educative programme is managed by Pamplona's Planetarium, a science divulgation center belongs to NICDO, the Navarrese Governmental organization for innovation and the promotion of Industry, Culture, Sport and Leisure.
THE REGION OF NAVARRA
The territory and its people
Navarre, the Comunidad Foral de Navarra, is situated in the North of Spain, at the western end of the Pyrenees, where it shares a 163-kilometre stretch of frontier with France. It has a land area of 10,391.08 square kilometres and is bordered, to the east, by Aragon -its provinces of Huesca and Zaragoza- to the south by Aragon and La Rioja, and to the northwest by the Basque Autonomous Community -Alava and Guipuzcoa -.
Population
The number of inhabitants has risen from 307,000 in 1900 to 640,000 currently and the density has grown from 29 inhabitants per square kilometre to 55. The population growth in Navarre has been below the Spanish average and density continues to be low.
The growth of district administrative centres, and especially of Pamplona and its metropolitan areas, has evolved at the expense of draining population from areas in which small rural hamlets prevail.
SMART SPECIALISATION STRATEGY OF NAVARRE (or S3) AND “PLANETA STEM” EDUCATIVE PROGRAM
One of Navarra´s Gobernment goal is to develop the “Smart Specialisation Strategy of Navarra”. Planeta STEM partipipates creating new science vocations, creating the future navarrese technic employers.
The Europe 2020 Strategy, developed by the European Commission in 2010, has come about from the need to promote a “smart, sustainable and inclusive” economic growth and it establishes a number of objectives for the EU, as well as a framework for action in terms of innovation, employment, education, social inclusion and energy, highlighting the concept of Smart Specialisation for development at regional level.
The Smart Specialisation Strategies (or S3) are a model for economic development that involves concentrating the resources in the economic areas where each region has significant competitive advantages. To do this, the S3 requires a shared vision of the future to be developed and the identification - via a process called “entrepreneurial discovery” - of a set of thematic priorities considering the economic, scientific and technological potential and global competitiveness of the region, and of its stakeholders, especially companies.
Finally, the S3 puts forward the use of smart policies that focus on these priorities to maximise the potential of regional development, to progress towards a knowledge-based economy.
One final aspect of the smart specialisation strategies as part of the EU framework is that they can help to deal with the major European social and environmental challenges (health,) nutrition, energy, transport, climate change, inclusion and security), and modernise the role of the public sector within the framework of economic development, and work with the new challenge of global governance.
Therefore, the strategies for smart specialisation consist of integrated agendas of economic and territorial transformation that deal with five key criteria:
- Their central element is focusing on the policy and investments in the key priorities, challenges and needs of the country or region.
- They make use of strong points, competitive advantages and potential for excellence of each country or region.
- They back up both technological and non-technological and social innovation, and encourage investment of the private sector.
- They involve stakeholders and further innovation and experimentation.
- They are evidence-based and include solid systems of supervision and evaluation
Planeta STEM is an educative programme and it´s objective is to encourage youngsters to choose and study scientific and technological degrees. Those studens will be the future technic employers of Navarra. So, Planeta STEM porpouses different activities for girls and boys, and the creation of High School iGEM-Team is one of them.
Last year Navarra participated with the first iGEM team in Navarra (it was the first Team of Spain in High School category), and this year we are going to show the proyect of the second iGEM team created by Planeta STEM. The members of our team are new: we developed last year proyect, and we didn´t know each other when we started to work in May. The reason is that Gobernment gives the opportunity to participate in iGEM to different students each year.
INSTITUTIONS: NICDO-PLANETARIUM OF PAMPLONA & CSIC
Planeta STEM is managed by Pamplona's Planetarium, which belongs to NICDO, the Navarrese Governmental organisation for innovation and the promotion of Industry, Culture, Sport and Leisure, whose objective is to encourage youngsters to choose and study scientific and technological degrees.
Navarra de Infraestructuras de Cultura, Deporte y Ocio (NICDO) directly manages the Baluarte Conference Centre and Auditorium of Navarre, the Pamplona Planetarium, the Larra-Belagua Ski Area and the Navarra Arena (since its opening in September 2018). In addition, it controls the outsourced management of the Navarra Exhibition Centre (managed by the company REFENA, S.L.) and the Navarre Circuit (managed by the company Los Arcos MotorSport, or LAMS). The NICDO manages the Navarre Film Library and the Navarra Film Commission and provides communication and management services for the Baluarte Foundation, an independent entity that is in charge of the programming of the Baluarte Auditorium and the Navarre Symphony Orchestra and the co-production of the Dance, Theatre, Cinema and Music Festivals of the Directorate-General for Culture of the Government of Navarre.
Planetarium of Pamplona is a cultural centre that enables the public to come directly into contact with astronomy and the mysteries of the universe. Without moving from their chairs, visitors watching the shows begin a journey through space during which they can see 9,000 stars, accelerate the passage of time by hours, days and years, discover new firmaments, observe the birth and death of a star, escape from the laws of space and time and witness the birth of the universe itself.
Situated in Yamaguchi Park, next to Sancho Ramírez Street, the 20-meter projection dome of the Pamplona Planetarium is one of the largest in the world. So, it is a good place to inspirate young people to take care of our planet and show why STEM studies are important for the future of Navarra.
Finally, our iGEM proyect is also supported by researchers and scientists of CSIC, the Spanish National Research Council. It´s a State Agency for scientific research and technological development. Scientist of CSIC have been the team´s teachers during the proyect, and we have used their installations in the Institute of Agrobiotechnology (IdAB) in order to work in our proyect.
