The ICREA Research Professor will take up the position on 1 November following an international recruitment process.

The Board of Trustees of the Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) has appointed Dr Ana I. Caño-Delgado as the new Director of the centre, a position she will assume on 1 November. The appointment follows an international recruitment process coordinated by the CERCA Institution, with the participation of CRAG’s Scientific Advisory Board and final approval by the Board of Trustees.

An ICREA Research Professor at CRAG and Head of the Research Group on brassinosteroid signalling in plant development and adaptation to climate change, Dr Caño-Delgado is an internationally recognised researcher in the study of plant steroid hormones. Her work has helped demonstrate how hormone regulation in specific cell types enables plants to maintain growth under drought conditions.

The new Director takes up the role with the aim of strengthening scientific excellence, talent attraction and development, innovation, and knowledge transfer, thereby increasing the impact of research on more sustainable and resilient agriculture. Her appointment comes at a particularly significant moment for CRAG, marked by the award of its third Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence distinction, a recognition that will further consolidate the centre’s international standing and support the implementation of its scientific and institutional programme for the 2026-2030 period.