Doctorate Programme UIMP-CSIC

Planet Earth is immersed in a process of environmental Global Change fostered by human activity. The accumulated evidence in 2006 marked a turning point in public and political awareness of the magnitude of this problem, which is identified as the most serious threat to the future of humanity. Climate Change, one of the components of Global Change, could generate estimated losses of up to 20% of global GDP, causing armed conflicts, huge migratory flows and food insecurity. Global Change, the effects of which will be felt particularly intensely in the Iberian Peninsula, is emerging as a first-rate challenge for humanity, our response, in the form of the ability to predict future changes, identify its causes and consequences, and formulate strategies for mitigation and adaptation has to come from the hand of science. The parallel growth of the human population and the use of resources by country has resulted in a pressure of human activity on planet Earth that conditions the fundamental processes of the Biosphere. Environmental Global Change refers to the effect of human activity on the fundamental processes that regulate the functioning of the Biosphere. Global Change includes many vectors of change, including climate change, the biodiversity crisis, the alteration of the biogeochemical and water cycles on the planet, the transformation of the territory and the desertification of much of it, and the introduction of anthropogenic chemical compounds into the environment.

•    Biosphere Dynamics
•    Consequences of Global Change
•    Impact of Global Change
•    Global Change and Society

During the last decades, Conservation Biology has been occupying an increasingly relevant place in the field of applied sciences. Considered as a 'crisis discipline', it attempts to integrate lines of research as diverse as economics, legislation, education, botany, zoology, taxonomy, genetics, ecology or biogeography to search strategies that allow the long-term conservation of biodiversity, as well as promoting sustainable social development over time. Although this last aspect has been addressed in the vast majority of countries in the world as a result of international agreements and conventions, the characteristics of the different ecosystems and their conservation status, as well as the available economic resources have given rise to strategies, in some cases, very different, and sometimes not adapted to the needs of each country. Tropical areas are home to the greatest biodiversity on the planet, but there are very few postgraduate programs that explicitly train for the study of biodiversity in these areas or how their use and conservation should be managed while taking into account non-existent characteristics in developed countries. There is no precedent in Spain, nor internationally, for a doctoral program focused on the study of tropical biodiversity and its conservation, which is why it covers an academic space with international demand. A substantial part of those currently enrolled in the doctoral program come from the UIMP-CSIC Master's Degree in Biodiversity in Tropical Areas and its Conservation, also without a national or international equivalent, which favours the internationalization of the program. The main CSIC centres integrated in the program, the Royal Botanical Garden and the National Museum of Natural Sciences have been researching the thematic area of the program for many years, so that their integration into the CSIC's R&D strategy is maximum. A large majority of current students are directed and integrated into CSIC research teams. •    Biogeography
•    Conservation biology
•    Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology

The area of crystallography focuses on the advancement of scientific knowledge in the processes of crystallization and crystallography, a natural process with enormous economic repercussion since many natural and synthetic products undergo this process of ordering matter. Research in the fundamental aspects of nucleation and crystal growth and its application to the different existing crystallization techniques, both single crystal and industrial crystallization, is especially relevant. Research in the latest advances in X-ray diffraction techniques stands out, as well as in the resolution and refining processes for industrial application and the transfer to society concerning other disciplines from an industrial, artistic or even culinary point of view.

•    Crystal Synthesis and Growth of porous materials
•    Structural Glycobiology
•    Synthesis, Structure and Technological Application of materials
•    Crystal Growth

The aforementioned area is inserted into the UIMP's objectives, aimed at integrating and adapting the teachings for adaptation to the European Higher Education Area. Through the Doctorate program, it will be possible to expand the offer of Doctorate to emerging issues of science and technology of polymer materials, a sector of high economic and social impact, and which is currently not sufficiently developed in the studies of Undergraduate and postgraduate courses at Spanish universities. This Doctoral Program aims to attract graduate students from various university degrees, mainly those with a scientific and technological orientation. The plastics industry in Spain accounts for around 40% of the national chemical industry and approximately 2.5% of GDP. Internationally, this situation is the same, both within the framework of the European Union and considering the areas of influence of the United States or the emerging region of Southeast Asia. The enormous development and importance of this industry as well as the essential need for plastic materials in diverse and more specialized strategic sectors such as the automotive industry, aerospace, new technologies, sports, packaging and packaging, clean energy (wind turbines, membranes for desalination and gas separation) etc., justify the need for specialized Doctors in this field

•    Polymer Physics, Elastomers and Energy Applications
•    Polymeric Nanomaterials and Biomaterials
•    Physical Chemistry of Polymers
•    Applied Macromolecular Chemistry
•    Chemistry and Properties of de polymeric materials

The Renewable Energies area of this program is part of the UIMP's objectives, aimed at integrating and adapting the teachings for adaptation to the European Higher Education Area. Through this area and the Doctorate program, it will be possible to expand the offer of Doctorate to emerging issues of science and technology of renewable energy, a sector with high economic and social impact, which has currently experienced strong momentum in our country. This Doctoral Program aims to attract graduate students from various university degrees, mainly those with a scientific and technological orientation. The renewable energy industry in Spain represents an important sector in the implementation and export of technology. Renewable energies produced a saving of 32,538 million euros in the Spanish electricity system as a result of the lower cost that led to its entry into the daily market between 2005 and 2012. To this should be added the economic impact derived from its incidence in reducing our energy balance, which amounted to 15,368 million, and avoids CO2 emissions worth 3,095 million. Thus, in relative terms, renewable energies under the Special Regime generated a saving in the Spanish energy system as a whole of 51,001 million euros in the aforementioned period. As for 2012, the renewable energy sector produced savings to the electricity system of 6,756 million euros, as shown by the data from the "Study of the Macroeconomic Impact of Renewable Energies in Spain in 2012"

•    Electro-materials
•    Energy Applications

The Biosciences area within this doctoral program has been designed based on the three main lines of research carried out at the Centre for Biological Research, one of the CSIC's largest and most prestigious Research Institutes, characterized by its multidisciplinary nature, collaborating in many of the projects developed by a large group of molecular and cellular biologists, chemists and scientists in the area of Chemical and Agricultural Sciences. The Biosciences area incorporates into this doctoral program three lines of research:

• Síntesis y crecimiento de cristales de materiales porosos
• Glicobiología estructural
• Síntesis, estructura y aplicación tecnológica de materiales
• Crecimiento de cristales