Institutional news

Next week, top scientists from Tel Aviv University (TAU), including Israel’s former Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Science and Technology, are visiting Barcelona to take part in a joint symposium with IBEC.

With many similarities between Catalonia and Israel – which are almost neck-and-neck when it comes to research output in Science and Nature, with over 30 publications per million inhabitants and similar levels of funding under FP7 – this event builds on the fact-finding mission of Artur Mas and Barcelona-based scientists to Israel last year and is supported by AGAUR.

The 6th European CellMech Meeting, which is being hosted by IBEC, started this morning at the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Medicine.

IBEC group leaders Daniel Navajas, Xavier Trepat and Pere Roca-Cusachs are the organising committee of this year’s CellMech, one of the premier worldwide meetings in cell mechanobiology. The conference, which goes on until Friday, focuses in particular on the integration of mechanical processes across scales, from subcellular components to tissues.

The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia is one of the two centres in Spain to be awarded accreditation in this round of the Severo Ochoa Excellence programme.

The Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness announced the provisional winners of the coveted distinction, selected by an international panel of more than 70 judges, this morning. Severo Ochoa Excellence Awards identify and promote research centres and units in Spain that stand out as international references in their specialized fields.
 
 

IBEC has been awarded the ‘Human Resources Excellence in Research’ from the European Commission, in recognition of its commitment to continuously improving its HR policies in line with The European Charter of Researchers and The Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (Charter and Code).

IBEC can now use the official HR Excellence in Research logo to help promote itself as a provider of a stimulating and favourable work environment according to the Charter and Code, which describe the rights and responsibilities of researchers and their employers and contribute to the creation of a labour market that is transparent, attractive and open at an international level.

IBEC group leader Alicia Casals received a 2015 fem.talent Award at the fem.talent Fòrum in Barcelona on Friday.

Alicia (third from right) won the prize for “Career trajectory”, recognising such milestones as the creation in 2011 of IBEC/UPC spin-off Rob Surgical Systems. Other award categories were “Emerging Talent”, “Innovation” and “Communication”.

The forum is a yearly conference of fem.talent, an initiative of the Network of Science and Technology Parks of Catalonia (XPCAT) that aims to promote equality of opportunity between men and women. This year the theme was “Smart Time: intelligent management of time,” with the objective of discussing innovative ideas and different practices in the field of time management.

On Friday morning representatives of Catalan political party Convergència i Unió (CIU) visited IBEC as part of a tour of the PCB.

Congresswoman Imma Riera and organizational secretary Josep Rull met IBEC Director Josep Samitier, who gave them an overview of IBEC, before visiting the Nanotechnology Platform, guided by coordinator Mateu Pla.
 

The English version of the Annual Report 2014 is now available to view online or download as a PDF.

In 2014, IBEC achieved, among other things:
– six Nature group papers, including a Nature Materials cover;
– 98 indexed journal papers in total, 77% of them in the first quartile;
– 12 PhD theses defended;
– two more ERC grants.
You can find all this and more in the Annual Report, which details the basic and translational research activities pursued by the institute in 2014, as well as the year’s news and scientific highlights, institutional alliances, tech transfer and clinical translation, and communications activities. A brand new section in this year’s edition covers IBEC’s Strategic Plan for the period 2014-2017 and the three areas of application in bioengineering.

As Spain’s expert in optogenetics and optopharmacology, IBEC group leader Pau Gorostiza will be the star of the next “Diálogos por la Ciencia” event in Madrid next week.

An initiative of the Fundación “la Caixa”, “Diálogos por la Ciencia” are a new way of communicating science to the public, in which prestigious scientists with international recognition are interviewed live in front of a audience of the public by a renowned journalist.
ICREA research professor Pau, who heads IBEC’s Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group, will talk about his work developing light-controlled drugs at the event in Madrid on 25th March.