After the appointment of María Seguí as Director General of Public Health, Drug Dependency and Consumption of the Healthcare and Social Issues Council of the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, the ECIP has drawn its activities to a close.
The year 2011 comes to an end, as does the initial phase of activities of the ECIP, which was very rewarding and productive, as we hope can be seen in the following lines.
Several events are occurring at the moment. The Whittaker Foundation Fellowship, thanks to which Jason L. Forman has spent the last two years with us, has come to an end and he will soon return to the Center for Applied Biomechanics of the Universidad of Virginia as Senior Researcher. Aileen Watchko also returns to the United States where, for at least a while, she will continue her work as Research Assistant at the AIS Center of Reference. Francisco López-Valdés has been awarded a Marie Curie Programme grant which will allow him to take up a post at the University of the Zaragoza to continue his research in the field of biomechanics. David Lessley defended his thesis on December 20, and in the next few months Eduardo del Pozo de Dios and Rebeca Abajas Bustillo will do the same. The latter is the first Spanish-speaker to obtain the official international certification of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine as an encoder for the AIS. As we mentioned in our last communiqué, Carlos Arregui Dalmases has left the University of Navarra and María Seguí-Gómez has been appointed Director General of Public Health, Drug Dependency and Consumption in Castilla La Mancha. To take up her post, she is moving to Toledo and taking and obligatory sabbatical leave from her teaching role at the university.
For all of the above reasons, together with the current economic crisis, of which we informed you in the last annual report, (September 2011), we have been forced to discontinue the services of the Center temporarily. In fact, it seems that our particular "Decade for Action" in the struggle to prevent and control injuries, from now on will continue from different angles and postures.
This is the closure of a 9-year period that began when María Seguí was awarded a Ramón y Cajal grant by the Spanish Ministry of Education to continue developing her professional career. Apart from the 74 peer-reviewed articles during this time (and other relevant publications), we would like to point out the different prizes and acknowledgments received: the appointments, for example, to posts as associate and full visiting professors of other universities together with the production of training material both in English and in Spanish. But there is no doubt that what makes us most proud and what we believe to be one of our most valuable assets is the faithful collaboration of the at least ten professionals who have worked full-time with the ECIP for part or all of this time. Moreover, we have developed a research network at national level with which we have collaborated regularly. Outstanding also is the visit of at least 15 researchers from abroad, which has increased our international renown. And we must not forget the exceptional group of experts from all over the world who have sat on our Assessment Committee.
Over the last three months we have been working with the administrators of the University of Navarra to settle a series of affairs: the finalization of contracts and operational projects; the transfer of those which had not begun; the temporary cancellation of organ donation; etc. We have also continued writing and sending articles, some of which have been accepted. .
We are extremely grateful for your inspiration, support and assistance over the years. We hope to continue working together sometime in the future.