Working groups

As a way of involving CERCA centres directly in the system’s strategy and the different work initiatives, the CERCA Institute has several working groups made up of the staff responsible for the project in the institute and one or more persons appointed from each centre, usually heads of area.

Equality Committee

In 2014, a specific diversity committee was set up to discuss and propose tools and measures aimed at eliminating bias and barriers so that highly qualified human capital would not be wasted.

The group meets at least twice a year and is the driving force behind a number of actions, such as training and awareness-raising courses on gender violence and videos on bias in staff recruitment.

Composition of the Equality Committee

  • Teresa Rosas – Head of Talent and Gender at the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF).
  • Nieves Prats – Core Facility Manager at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).
  • Michela Svaluto Moreolo – Senior researcher and director of quality programmes at the Telecommunications Technological Center of Catalonia (CTTC).
  • Maria Targa – Manager of the Catalan Institute for Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES).
  • Xavier Lasauca – Head of Knowledge Management – Directorate General for Research (guest).
  • Laia Pellejà i Puxeu – Director of the CERCA Institute.

Legal Committee

The Legal Committee is one of the oldest CERCA committees. It is made up of a dozen people responsible for the legal area of the centres. They meet at least a twice a year to discuss adapting and applying regulations to CERCA centres. 

Cybersecurity

This group, made up of the centres’ security technicians, works together with the Cybersecurity Agency of Catalonia (formerly CESICAT) to define a perimeter and specific actions in the field of cybersecurity in the centres’ system. 

Communication

This group is made up of all the heads of this area from the different centres. Its function is twofold. Firstly, it conveys information on communication and corporate image affecting all the centres throughout the structure. Secondly, it proposes joint, system-wide actions and debates on requirements in its field and exchanges good practices.

The group’s main activities include:

  • Identifying a centre as a CERCA centre and applying the graphic image, especially on websites and corporate publications.
  • Promoting a collaboration agreement with the Catalan Media Corporation (CCMA) to obtain more advantageous advertising for the centres.
  • Working with CCMA media and providing them with a database of experts in different fields of science.
  • Using social and other media to internally and externally publicise joint campaigns such as the CERCAGINYS programme.

Financial Management

The four most frequent areas of work for the financial department in conjunction with the centres are:

  • VAT
  • Recruitment.
  • Harmonising annual accounting criteria.
  • Optimising costs/benefits of centres’ treasuries and participating in different committees.

Transfer

In the Transfer working group we network to identify good practices, share experiences and help centres in their innovation transfer and management processes. We also define joint strategies to improve the market outreach of the knowledge generated in our centres.
  • In 2011, with support from ERDF funds, the first proof-of-concept pilot programme was carried out, which would later on, together with the GÍNJOL patent fund, inspire the programmes promoted by the Directorate General for Research, such as the “Indústria del coneixement” programme with its Llavor and Producte grants.
  • The first round of CERCA assessments (2012-2013) focused on the centres’ regulations for intellectual and industrial property and spin-off company creation. From that date onwards, all centres have advanced in their transfer and innovation process management.
  • We have implemented joint purchasing for innovation management and patent search tools. We currently have agreements with publishers such as Orbit (Orbit Intelligence and Orbit Innovation) and Wellspring (Flintbox).
  • In 2016, a patent and intellectual property fund (CERCAGÍNJOL) was set up, unique in Spain, as it allows us to protect knowledge and increase the time to market (TRL) for financed technologies.
  • We have extended the perimeter of the CERCA system by identifying and cataloguing spin-off companies from the centres themselves.
  • We are working on transfer indicators, in line with European recommendations.

The aim of the group is to continue working on exploiting synergies in conjunction with other working groups such as Infrastructures and Data Management. In particular, the centres’ transfer units are involved in the centres’ scientific platform access project (CERCAGINYS) and in managing and commercialising open data.

Useful links