Jordi Camí, appointed president of the Spanish Research Ethics Committee

The vice-president of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation and general director of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB), Jordi Camí, has been elected president of the Spanish Research Ethics Committee. The Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Spanish Government has set up this new independent and consultative body with the aim of ensuring responsible science and the integrity of its professionals.

The Committee, made up of 12 renowned experts in fields such as bioethics, law, philosophy of science, animal experimentation and artificial intelligence, will be responsible for issuing reports, proposals and recommendations on matters related to the professional ethics in scientific and technical research, as well as scientific integrity and responsible research. In addition, it will establish the general principles for the development of codes of good practice in scientific and technical research, intended for the ethics committees of organizations that carry out and finance research in Spain.

This body will also represent Spain in supranational and international forums and bodies related to scientific integrity, responsible research and research ethics, except for issues linked to bioethics, which are delegated to the Spanish Bioethics Committee.

Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation, chaired the Committee's constitution meeting on June 1, in which Jordi Camí ha unanimously been elected as president and Nuria Sebastián, professor in the Department of Information Technologies at the Pompeu Fabra University communications, as vice president.

On the other hand, this June, Camí has also been appointed Scientific Secretary of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC). From this position, Camí will coordinate and manage the Institute's scientific research activities. In 2017, the IEC appointed Jordi Camí as a full member, attached to the Biological Sciences Section, in recognition of his scientific and human career.

Jordi Camí is a doctor in Medicine and professor at Pompeu Fabra University. He has developed his academic activity between the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Pompeu Fabra University, in which he has held different positions (rector's delegate, dean and department director). From 1985 to 2005 he was director of the Municipal Institute of Medical Research, and has participated in the management of new centers and promoted research infrastructures such as the PRBB. He was the promoter and first director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation between 2008 and 2020, and is currently its vice-president. His scientific activity has been focused for more than 35 years in the field of neuroscience.