Institutional networks and alliances

The Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) is supported by the Catalan Government to recruit top scientists for the Catalan R&D system to lead new research groups, strengthen existing ones and set up new lines of research. The foundation works closely with Catalan universities and research centres through long-term agreements that allow ICREA researchers to participate in research groups in these centres. 

IBEC and the Barcelona Global Health Institute (ISGLOBAL) signed an official agreement in 2010 to facilitate collaboration in certain areas of common interest. This led to the establishment of a joint unit where both institutions contribute with resources (researchers, spaces, etc) to develop diagnostic and therapeutic nanomedicine-based systems to be applied to malaria (Nanomalaria group).

Spain’s Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER), a legal entity financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, creates large multidisciplinary and multi-institutional networks of research centres that will integrate basic and clinical research. Several IBEC group leaders work in programmes within CIBER, such as CIBER-BBN, which covers bioengineering, biomaterials and nanomedicine. Research is focused on disease prevention, diagnostics systems and technologies for specific therapies, such as regenerative medicine and nanotherapies. Another programme within CIBER, CIBERES – Centro de investigación en red de enfermedades respiratorias – involves Cellular and Respiratory Biomechanics group leader Daniel Navajas and addresses respiratory illnesses.

Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED), which covers neurodegenerative diseases, maintains its own legal personality as it is managed by Fundación CIEN. It is composed of 63 research groups working on basic and clinical research. José Antonio del Río, who works on projects within CIBERNED, puts IBEC’s number of group leaders working within CIBER programmes at 12.

The Cellex Foundation and the ”la Caixa” Banking Foundation are funding two major projects coordinated by the Fetal Medicine Research Centre, Fetal i+D (Hospital Clínic and Hospital Sant Joan de Déu). The projects comprise four sub-projects, one of which, Robotics and Electronic Biosensors, is coordinated at IBEC.Video: http://medicinafetalbarcelona.org/cellex/

A joint research Unit between IBEC and the Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP) is coordinated by Raimon Jané, head of IBEC’s Biomedical Signal Processing and Interpretation group, and the hospital’s Miquel Àngel Gasull.

Under a collaboration agreement that directly impacts on clinical translation activities, the SPECs group of Prof. Paul Verschure at IBEC works with the Neurovascular Group led by Dr. Ana Rodriguez-Campello at IMIM.