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Interview

	Joan X. Comella Director of the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (The Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation)
“We need to work for the socialisation of science ”	In Joan X. Comella we discover the vitality and serenity needed to successfully lead this Catalonian foundation devoted to the promotion and dissemination of research and innovation. He recognises that the foundation has won certain prestige since its creation, but assures us that there is more that can be done. The impulse that pushes his work and motivates him to work harder to convince society to invest in science is evident in each of his future projects.
Since 2007, the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI) has operated under the direction of Joan X. Comella. A doctor by trade, he juggles his post as director and research on neurodegenerative disease at the Institute of Neurosciences at the UAB. His work is backed by numerous years of experience as a vice rector of Research and Graduate Studies at the Universitat de Lleida and as director of the Fundación Española de Ciencia y Tecnología (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology). Though he considers himself a scientist by vocation, as foundation director, he has in mind numerous projects essential to the field of “Science and society”.	What is the role of science museums in disseminating science? In my opinion, more as a user than as an expert, science museums must foster dissemination especially in the younger generations. Museums must serve as a meeting point between the past and the immediate present. They must know how to explain to the current visiting public the remotest past in an accessible and easy manner. If dissemination is carried out effectively, we'd be able to palliate the enormous shortage of scientific professionals manifest in today's society. One of mNACTEC's aims is to convert the museum into a window on R&D centres. How can we make museum dissemination compatible with the objectives of the research centres? Research centres must focus their energies first on their scientific work, and then consider scientific dissemination as a second priority. They must find a way to complement the work undertaken by museums, improving communication channels between research and museums. I really can't imagine the objectives of each sector being at odds. They must cooperate and help one another in benefit of the same, ultimate goal: To promote the interrelationship between society and science. In our case, the FCRI aims to be a sort of structure made up of the Catalonian agents that are involved in science and its dissemination. How could the FRCI work to favour cooperation synergies between universities, businesses and museums? We at the Foundation want to contribute the articulation of the Catalonian system of research and innovation by promoting new initiatives and ideas. To this end, we are promoting FITEC, a project that will help us foster contact and communication between research centres, universities and centres that disseminate science. This project is a platform between the world of research and business which facilitates dialogue and the transfer of knowledge, as well as technology and innovation. Which projects in the field of scientific-technological heritage is FCRI currently working on? We have various planned projects that share a common denominator, that of socialising science. We must work to ensure that society understands, learns and recognises the scientific effort that is currently being shown in the R&D field in Catalonia. To this end, one of FCRI's immediate goals is to promote the Science Week in Catalonia as a model in scientific dissemination, involving more than 200 Catalonian institutions involved in research and development. We would also like to create a 2.0 web community Catalonian Science and Technology Portal, as well as promote scientific awareness among schools and to bring science to the students, by way of projects such as EnginyCat.