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Usurbil, Gipuzkoa. BasqueResearch.com was created in order to boost the network of Basque research, as a meeting point for those involved in such research, for these to share information, and also to provide a service to journalists in the Basque Country and internationally. Effectively, those involved in research in the Basque Country, journalists in the Basque Country and abroad, and visitors are the principal users of the web site. Thus, as university research teams, technology centres and business company R+D units have been created and strengthened, the Basque Research web site has been consolidated.

In its ten years of existence, the numbers of players in science and technology have increased tremendously. Following a coherent strategy, research teams have arisen: at the universities and in the clusters, the IK4 Technological Alliance, the Tecnalia Technological Corporation, business company R+D units, CIC (the Centre of Co-operative Research) research centres and BERC (Basque Excellence Research Centres), the ESTIA and Izarbel technopoles, the nominations of the Campus of Excellence, the Basque Government’s Innobasque Agency for boosting the System of Science in the Basque Country, and the Ikerbasque Foundation.

The latter has contributed to developing the BERC research centres, a network currently made up of six centres, working on the physics of materials, cognition and language, climate change, biophysics, applied mathematics and physics. Over 5 years, Ikerbasque has attracted some 200 researchers from 20 countries. While Basque society has been providing structure to this network of science and technology, the web site has been consolidating itself, having been and continuing to be a true reflection of all this activity.

For ten years now the web site has acted as the showcase for work carried out in the Basque Country in research, development and innovation. Over these ten years some 8,000 news items and events have been collated and disseminated in the Basque Country as well as throughout the rest of the world. The creation of networks of research and development has been a priority for Basque Research from its beginnings. In this vein, the close collaboration with the Alphagalileo web site can be highlighted, bringing together as it does research undertaken throughout Europe; likewise the joint working with Cordis Wire, managed by the European Commission.

Moreover, the news items provided by Basque Research are also published on Eurekalert!, thanks to an agreement signed in 2004. Eurekalert! is the web site of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the publishers of the prestigious Science journal. Thanks to this network, news stories of research work carried out in the Basque Country have been published in numerous prestigious publications: The Times, New Scientist, BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, CNN, and so on.

In short, Basque Research has been witness to the development of research undertaken in the Basque Country and, to a certain extent, to the development of our society also, given that technology, health, medicine and the environment have been the star themes of the news stories provided by our web site regarding research, development and innovation.

These are precisely the topics highlighted in the study, Perception of Science and Technology amongst the Youth of the Basque Country, 2011 which the Elhuyar Foundation carried out together with the Department of Education of the Basque Government and the Scientific Culture Cathedra (Academic Programme) at the University of the Basque Country. According to the results of this study, it can be deduced that young people are interested in science and technology themes and that the topics that most catch their interest are computer science, technology, the environment and health.

To combat environmental problems, find solutions to energy problems, develop new manufacturing technologies, improve the well-being of the elderly or even confront the current economic situation, it is essential to commit to research, development and innovation (R+D+i). Two decades ago, it was rare to hear R+D+i mentioned in the communication media. Today, however, research and development is constantly underlined, both in newspapers as well as on the radio and TV and it would appear that government administration bodies have also taken this road.

Current society has to be both aware of and pro-active in the advances taking place in the field of research, i.e. society and research have to go hand in hand if they wish to advance, given that the development of science and technology, besides being a source of benefits for humans and for society, is a fundamental resource for developed countries.

This is why the Basque Research web site wishes to continue further providing society with a photograph, as it were, of R+D+i carried out in the Basque Country, at all times following the productive development undertaken to date and responding appropriately to future needs.

The Basque Government has recently presented the 2015 Science, Technology and Innovation Plan. As a continuation of the 2001-2004 Plan, the commitment to achieving a Basque society based on knowledge and innovation has been reaffirmed. It behoves us to channel the relations between all the Players in the Basque Network of Science, Technology and Innovation in an appropriate manner, in order to make the most of such synergies and to efficiently manage the resources we have at our disposal. In this context, the Basque Research web site aspires to carry on gathering and providing information on all that related to research, development and innovation undertaken in the Basque Country.