Institutional news

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.

This week some of IBEC’s Scientific Advisory Board members are visiting to take part in the Fourth International Conference on Multifunctional, Hybrid and Nanomaterials (Hybrid Materials 2015), which is taking part in Sitges until Friday.

Molly Stevens from Imperial College London and Samuel Stupp of Northwestern University, who is president of IBEC’s SAB, will both give featured talks at the international meeting, which attracts 900 participants from over 50 countries for its 306 oral presentations and over 970 poster presentations.

On Tuesday March 10 the official presentation of EIT-Health Spain will be taking place at the PCB.

This local node of EIT-Health, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s “Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC)” for healthy living and active aging, is led by the University of Barcelona coordinated by IBEC Director Josep Samitier, Dr. Jordi Alberch, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Transfer at the UB, and Dr. Montserrat Vendrell, Director General of the PCB and BIOCAT.

The event will be attended by Secretary of State Carmen Vela, as well as other institutional representatives of the ministries involved: the Generalitat de Catalunya, Comunidad de Madrid and the Generalitat Valenciana.

IBEC and Genomica S.A.U. (Grupo Zeltia), the leading Spanish company in molecular diagnostics, announce the creation of a Joint Research Unit that will provide an operational framework for close interaction on various R&D activities related to healthcare.

The unit, which will be located at IBEC’s headquarters in Barcelona, will see researchers and industry technicians sharing a host of know-how and in-house capabilities to develop and bring to market point-of-care diagnostic products and other medical devices and technologies.