Despite the initially unfavourable situation of subalternity and threats coming from outside, by freely resorting to a wide range of sources of support, in the surprisingly short time of less than 15 years a critical mass of scientists with a solid basic preparation was reached and the foundations were laid for an advanced, organic scientific system. Around the mid-1960s a lively discussion developed involving scientific, intellectual and student milieus as well as foreign specialists, about what directions and choices to take in order to promote scientific growth that would meet the country’s basic social and economic needs and promote human progress. While collaboration with the Soviet Union was strengthened, decisive contributions also came from western scientists, for instance in the summer schools held from 1968 to 1973. Particularly relevant was the contribution of western, mainly Italian, biologists in training a school of Cuban geneticists and specialists in other fields of modern biology in which, because of its ideological hostility, Soviet science had remained far behind. © 2016, The Author(s).

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