The project awarded in March 2023 by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT)-Ministry of Science and Innovation, which involved a grant of €20,000 for the promotion of scientific, technological and innovation culture, comes to an end. As part of the Network of Units of Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+i), the CRAG acts as an agent in the dissemination and dissemination of science and innovation and constitutes a key service to improve and increase training, culture and innovation.

The project funded by the FECYT has aimed to increase the scientific culture of society on topics such as plant science, genomics, agriculture and food, in addition to disseminating the results of CRAG's research and innovation. Through the implementation of the four actions of the project, it has been possible to disseminate the importance of agricultural genomic research to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to face current challenges in society in a climate crisis context.

Thanks to the award of this grant, the UCC+i at CRAG has been able to expand the scope and impact of its communication and dissemination plan through actions that have included the writing and dissemination of news on R+D+i results, the approach of plant science to schools and institutes and the dissemination of scientific activity to the public. 

Throughout this call, two participatory workshops were given at the CRAG facilities. The Mutant Plants workshop that took place in November 2023, for primary school students, where four schools participated, and the Plant Defense workshop, in February 2024, for high school students in which five centers were selected to participate via the Escolab platform. The distribution of the photographic exhibition “Who does research with plants?” also took place in two secondary schools and culminated, in both cases, with an informative talk done by CRAG researchers at the said schools.

Lastly, the project “CRAG Postcards: images from the microscopic world” was developed. This project consisted of the design and distribution of scientific informative material using a postcard-format, which included microscopy images of the center's researchers and an explanatory text associated to each scientific picture. More than 5,000 postcards were distributed among public libraries, bookstores and civic centers, thus managing to transfer scientific activity from an informative point of view to a very large audience.