To mark the centenary of the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (JAE), the Ministry of Culture, through the Sociedad Estatal de Conmemoraciones Culturales, the Ministry of Education and Science, through the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, the Fundación Francisco Giner de los Rios [Institución Libre de Enseñanza] and the Residencia de Estudiantes wished to pay tribute to this institution and its protagonists.

 

This exhibition aims to introduce to the general public the relevance of the Junta project of modernization. Its program of reform includes grants for graduate studies abroad, the development of cutting edge scientific research, and the educational renewal.

 

The JAE was an autonomous institution under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and was chaired by Santiago Ramón y Cajal until his death in 1934. It used two means to achieve its objectives: scholarships and training abroad, and new research centers. More than 2,000 scholars and scientists benefitted from its programs, many of which were important figures in science, the arts, and the humanities. The JAE was a "lab" in itself, testing a new model of modernization through science in Spain.

 

The exhibition is divided into two distinct sections. One shows the history of the JAE and its protagonists. The other, in the Transatlantic Pavilion, which used to house Juan Negrín and Pío del Río Hortega laboratories, presents five items representing the main areas of research and pedagogical renewal: the neuron, speech, matter, the Guadarrama sierra and education. This approach aims to show the scientific knowledge developed in the JAE through practical proposals, thereby keeping something vital to this institution, its spirit of renewal.