VALENCIA, 22 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Department of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries has agreed to propose the appointment of researcher José Blasco as the new director of the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research (IVIA), an organization attached to the General Directorate of the PAC.
This proposal has been transferred by the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, José Luis Aguirre, to the scientific council of the IVIA, which is the body in charge of its approval.
With the appointment of Blasco — “a renowned researcher with international prestige and a very technical profile,” the Generalitat emphasizes — a new stage begins at the IVIA in which the goal is to take the IVIA to a higher level of excellence and bet even more on research and transfer of results to the agricultural sector.
From Agriculture they point out that with the appointment proposal a consensus profile has been sought, which has the support of researchers, based on scientific, academic, professional and technical solvency criteria, as well as experience in performing management positions. responsibility and leadership capacity to plan, implement and lead programs that allow the objectives set by the IVIA to be carried out.
According to IVIA’s own regulations, the person in charge of the center’s management must be appointed “from among civil servants with appropriate qualifications and scientific knowledge.”
The new director of the IVIA will replace Rodolfo Canet, who had requested his replacement from the Minister of Agriculture. The Department appreciates the involvement of the director and the management team until now in the internal renewal process and contribution to the institute all these years.
José Blasco is a doctor in Computer Science, Research Professor and Coordinator of the IVIA Agroengineering Center, to which he has been linked since 1996. He has an extensive professional career in the field of digitalization, automation and agricultural robotization and as well as in development of technology for rapid and non-destructive inspection of agri-food production in which he has received several internationally recognized awards for his research work.
Blasco is the coordinator of an international working group on Image Analysis and Spectroscopy for Agricultural Products and Processes and is specialized in technologies associated with precision agriculture for real-time inspection and monitoring for precision agriculture.
He has also coordinated more than 30 research projects and contracts, is the author of national and international patents, has written more than 85 articles published in scientific journals and 25 chapters in books from international publishers, and has participated in more than 200 congresses and conferences by invitation.
The Valencian Institute of Agrarian Research (IVIA) is an autonomous entity of the Generalitat, with its own legal personality, created by Law 4/1991 of the Generalitat Valenciana of March 13. Among its objectives is to promote scientific research and technological development in the Valencian agri-food sector and to integrate this contribution to the progress of agricultural science in the system of collaboration and cooperation relations typical of research activity.