The Rector of the University of Oviedo, Vicente Gotor, and the General Director of Alcon Cusi, Enrique Chico Picaza, signed this morning a collaboration agreement for establishing an Alcon Chair of Innovation in Emmetropic Surgery, which aims to increase the activity carried out sporadically by the holder of the Chair and provide it with a stable framework in order to develop far-reaching projects in Ophthalmology, with special attention to emmetropic surgery.

The University of Oviedo, in the person of José F. Alfonso Sánchez, lecturer in the field of Ophthalmology, will be in charge of the Chair's management. The Management Committee will be made up of three representatives from each institution: on the part of ALCON CUSI SA, Enrique Chico Picaza, Antonil Maneu Marcos and Pedro Coloma Romero; on the part of the University of Oviedo, José F. Alfonso Sánchez as director of the Chair, Luis Fernández- Vega Sanz, Professor of Ophthalmology, and Jesús Merayo Lloves, lecturer in the area of Ophthalmology.

The agreement will come into effect since the very moment of its signing and until the end of the 2013-2014 academic year. There is the possibility, depending on its development, of extending it for other two academic years. During the act, the Rector, Vicente Gotor, thanked these kinds of initiatives and pointed out that "it is a pleasure for the University that the companies invest on research. One of my pet subjects is that, without research we will not emerge from the crisis".

For his part, Luis Fernández- Vega stated that this kind of agreements fosters the industry- University relationship and "opens a new way for hiring researchers without additional costs for the academic institution".

Finally, the General Director of Alcon was very excited about the project of the Chair and added that "our company has always bet for innovation and research, to which we allocate more than 13% of our budget".