Today the Minister of Science and Innovation, Pedro Duque, has visited the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), and has stated his commitment to continue supporting the “solid work” of its researchers and technicians, and the importance of the Unique Scientific and Technological Infrastructures (ICTS) to the progress of R+D+i in Spain.

Accompanied by the Director of the CENIEH, María Martinón Torres, the Minister toured the facilities of this ICTS, the only one in Social Sciences and Humanities, to see for himself the CENIEH laboratories and their principal equipment, as well as the latest research being conducted by its researchers and technicians. He was also able to enter the new vault room where the most important fossils from the collections housed by the CENIEH are deposited.

The visiting party was also joined by Rafael Rodrigo, Secretary-General for Research at the Ministry of Science and Innovation; Pedro de la Fuente Fernández, Deputy Government Representative in Burgos; Blanca Ares, Director-General for Universities and Research at the Department of Education of the Junta de Castilla y León; Raúl Fernández, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Junta de Castilla y León; Nuria Barrio, Deputy Mayor of Burgos, and Alejandro Sarmiento, Director of the Museo de la Evolución Humana (MEH).

At the end of his visit, the Minister wrote in the CENIEH visitors' book of the pride he had felt at seeing for himself that cutting-edge knowledge of European and world importance is being produced at these facilities, and he was presented with a sculpture to mark the occasion by the Burgos artist Javier Sanz, representing the handaxe that is the CENIEH logo.

The Minister's stay in Burgos ended at the sites in the Sierra de Atapuerca, which he toured under the guidance of José María Bermúdez de Castro, Paleobiology Program Coordinator at the CENIEH and codirector of Atapuerca.