The jury of the XVI Convocation of the Premios Prisma “Casa de las Ciencias” in the Dissemination of Science 2003, awarding people and institutions that have showed an outstanding effort in the outreach of science and technology, decided unanimously, on September 27th, that the Premio Especial del Jurado should be given to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC). In the jury’s decision, it is noted that the prize has been awarded to the IAC “for being a model in the way that science can be done without excluding the interests of the citizens, their concern for spreading science and communicating with society through exhibits, digital magazines, radio shows and many other activities.” The government of La Coruña awarded the award, a bronze prism.

In representation of the IAC, Luis A. Martínez Sáez, head of the director’s support unit of this Institute, who, in the name of the recipients, professed his wish that these awards serve the purpose of “increasing society’s commitment to science and that of scientists and technologists with their citizens” and to end the “prolonged divorce of the two cultures.” He also noted that “the first link, the first responsibility to scientific outreach, should begin at the shore of research, of science and technology centres, of universities and their research and technology groups,” “because it is there-he added- where the source of knowledge and new discoveries lie, and it is there where efficient instruments should be used to explain to the media and its readers and audiences what these advances mean, and their value to society as a whole.” Lastly, he noted that “we should be able to understand that research, in particular public research, has a client which is society, and that this society pays its bills, and precisely because of this, the contributors have a right to the product that we can call “the social product of science”."