Last Friday, November 4, the Ministry of Science and Innovation made public the provisional resolution of the call for the granting of accreditations and public aid for Severo Ochoa centers of excellence and María de Maeztu units of excellence.

The objective of the María de Maeztu units of excellence and the Severo Ochoa centers is to promote the quality of the scientific research of those centers that stand out for the relevance or impact, at an international level, of the research results obtained.

A total of nine research institutes have obtained the María de Maeztu recognition throughout the state, four of them from the University of Barcelona: the Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro), the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTC), the Barcelona Institute of Analytic Philosophy (BIAP) and our Institute for Research in Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA). This award will represent a grant of 2 million euros and 6 predoctoral contracts for our institute.

Since its inception, INSA was born with the aim of responding to the demands and needs of today's society in research, training and service provision in sectors related to the agri-food industry. Our researchers are experts in various specialties of nutrition, food analysis and control, food safety and the study of the social and economic impact of food. We are sure that the María de Maeztu recognition will help us to promote research, encourage the development of projects and foster the transfer of knowledge and the dissemination of research results.

Finally, we thank the Ministry of Science and Innovation for the recognition and a very special thanks to all the researchers whose hard work has made this possible.