Josep Samitier will step down as Director of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) on 31 December 2025. Under his leadership since 2013, IBEC has become a leading institution in Spain for research excellence in bioengineering. Manuel Salmeron, an ICREA Research Professor at IBEC, will take over as interim director at the request of the Institute’s board of trustees.
Josep Samitier Martí will step down as director of the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) on 31 December after thirteen years at the helm of the institution, although he will continue to collaborate with the institute in 2026. The Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering’s full professor at the University of Barcelona is thus closing a professional chapter, leaving behind a legacy of growth and transformation at the institution.
As IBEC prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary, sharing this evolution with the entire IBEC community has been the most rewarding experience of my professional life.
Josep Samitier
Since Samitier took the helm in 2013, IBEC has become a leading institution in Spain for research excellence, setting the standard in bioengineering. This has been recognised through the institute receiving Severo Ochoa accreditation on three consecutive occasions — a distinction reserved for the country’s best research centres.
IBEC has also strengthened its position as one of the most prominent bioengineering centres in Europe. It currently comprises 26 research groups, employs over 400 people, and had an annual budget of €21.5 million in 2024.
Samitier will remain associated with IBEC on a part-time basis as deputy director until the end of 2026 to ensure the successful completion of the institute’s current strategic plan and strategic projects from his third term as director. During this transitional period, Manuel Salmerón will serve as interim director, taking over the management of the centre and ensuring the institutional and operational continuity of IBEC until the selection process for the new director is completed.
Manuel Salmerón is ICREA Research Professor at IBEC and an expert in biomaterials and the study and engineering of extracellular matrices for tissue engineering. Before joining IBEC in early 2024, he was Full Professor of Applied Physics at the Polytechnic University of Valencia until 2013. He then joined the University of Glasgow as Full Professor of Biomedical Engineering and served as Director of the Biomedical Engineering Division from 2014 to 2022, and then as Director of the James Watt School of Engineering until 2024.
At the helm of the bioengineering of the future
In recent years, Josep Samitier has led IBEC in a number of high-impact strategic initiatives. These include the scientific plan for the various Severo Ochoa awards received by IBEC from the Ministry of Science and Innovation, as well as the largest state biotechnology consortium for health. This consortium is focused on new technologies for precision medicine and advanced therapies. This project is part of the Spanish government’s complementary plans for transformation and resilience and has a budget of €32 million, with the collaboration of seven autonomous communities.
In Samitier’s words: “The scientific and technological development of bioengineering in the first quarter of the 21st century is causing a real revolution in our ability to understand how the human body works and how to tackle diseases with greater diagnostic precision and the ability to determine the most beneficial therapy for each individual. Alongside our ability to interpret and understand our organism at the level of molecular interactions, cells, tissues and organs, we now have the capacity to modify, control and construct mechanisms and structures that can correct defects or minimise deficiencies which are the basis of many diseases that, until now, had no effective treatment.
As IBEC prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary, sharing this evolution with the entire IBEC community has been the most rewarding experience of my professional life.”
Strategic vision, commitment to excellence, and the ability to inspire teams have been fundamental in establishing IBEC as a leading institution in the research sector. At IBEC, we are deeply grateful for Josep’s dedication and leadership, which have undoubtedly marked a key stage in our history.
