New grants from the Research and Universities Ministry to strengthen the use of Catalan in the research system

€200,000 allocated to CERCA research centres in Catalonia for initiatives promoting and using Catalan.

The Research and Universities Ministry has launched a new call to enhance the presence of Catalan in the knowledge system: grants for CERCA research centres in Catalonia to implement initiatives fostering and using the Catalan language within research institutes. Administered by the AGAUR (Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca), these new grants are part of the measures outlined in the Plan for Strengthening the Catalan Language in the University and Research System of Catalonia. They complement other ongoing programmes such as the Interlingua grants for promoting Catalan in universities, and funding for university textbooks and doctoral theses written in Catalan.

With a total budget of €200,000, each CERCA centre may submit up to four projects or initiatives, with a minimum funding of €2,000 per project. Applications must be submitted by 20 March. Eligible actions under this call include the design and implementation of sustainable multilingualism management initiatives to promote Catalan in research centres, the organisation of linguistic integration programmes for non-Catalan speakers joining the institutes, and the dissemination of resources for learning Catalan and using Catalan terminology in the scientific field, among others.

Grants for Doctoral Theses in Catalan

The Research and Universities Ministry also awarded grants at the end of last year for doctoral theses written in Catalan (TDCAT 2024) and submitted to Catalan universities. With an investment of nearly €80,000, a total of 129 grants were awarded, each worth approximately €600.

Of the 129 grants awarded:
– 63 were for theses written entirely in Catalan.
– 32 were for theses completed with the attainment of a doctorate with European distinction, written in Catalan and another official language of the European Union.
– 34 were for theses structured as a compendium of publications, where the non-published parts or chapters were written in Catalan.

The Government Awards the Creu de Sant Jordi to Marta Sanz-Solé, Vice-President of I-CERCA, and Eudald Carbonell, Founder of IPHES

An Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Marta Sanz-Solé was appointed Vice-President of I-CERCA in June 2023.

The Government has also honoured Eudald Carbonell, founder of the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA).

Today marks the ceremony for the presentation of the Creu de Sant Jordi to Dr Marta Sanz-Solé (Sabadell, 1952) in recognition of her outstanding contributions and career in the fields of science and mathematics.

With an extensive professional trajectory, Marta Sanz-Solé specialises in probability theory. Her research focuses on stochastic analysis, particularly stochastic differential equations and partial differential equations.

A PhD graduate of the University of Barcelona (UB), she served as a lecturer at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) before becoming a professor at UB, where she joined the research group on stochastic processes. Between 1993 and 1996, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics at UB and later as Vice-President of the Division of Experimental and Mathematical Sciences (2000–2003) at the same institution.

Dr Sanz-Solé was President of the European Mathematical Society (2011–2014), becoming the first woman to hold this position. She has also served on scientific and management committees for various mathematics research centres across Europe and chaired the PE1 (Mathematics) panel for the Consolidator Grants in the 2019 and 2021 calls of the European Research Council.

Her academic excellence has been recognised with numerous awards and honours, including the Narcís Monturiol Medal for Scientific and Technological Excellence from the Government of Catalonia (1998), Fellowship of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (2011), membership of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (2016) and the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona (2019), and honorary membership of the College of Economists of Catalonia, among others.

In the same ceremony, the Government will honour Eudald Carbonell, an archaeologist, professor of Prehistory, and founder and director of the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES-CERCA) from 2004 to 2015, for his significant scientific and outreach contributions in archaeology and prehistory.

Dr Carbonell has led numerous excavations, most notably his role as co-director of the Atapuerca archaeological site, one of the world’s most important prehistoric sites. He has also directed excavations at the Abric Romaní site, a key resource for understanding Neanderthal life. In 1997, he received the Prince of Asturias Award and, in 2009, the National Culture Award.

Of the twenty individual medals awarded this year, seven have been granted to professionals in science and research. Today, the Creu de Sant Jordi is also presented to:

– Claudi Alsina, Professor of Mathematics;
– Pilar Bayer, Emeritus Professor of Algebra;
– Carme Torras, mathematician, computer scientist, and writer;
– Elia Torroella, pharmacist;
– Jordi Camí, Third Vice-President of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, founder of the CRG and PRBB, and Director of the IMIM (now the Hospital del Mar Research Institute) from 1985 to 2005.

 

Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute open call for Director

The new Director should define the overall scientific, technological and innovation vision for the institute

The new director is expected to foster a stimulating environment for interdisciplinary and translational research in leukaemia and other malignant haematological diseases. Additionally, they must promote an institutional culture that integrates collaboration, communication, integrity, transparency, collegiality, and scientific creativity, with the ultimate goal of finding a cure for leukaemia and other malignant haematological diseases.

The IJC is also part of the network of Excellence Research Centers of Catalonia (CERCA) and was accredited as a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities in 2024. Since 2018, the Institute has also been accredited by the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (FCAECC) Additionally, IJC is one of the centers integrated into the Institut de Recerca Germans Trias i Pujol (IGTP) accreditation as Accredited Health Research Institute (IIS) by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII).

IDIBAPS appointment of director

The Fundació Recerca Clínic Barcelona – Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS) is a biomedical research institute of excellence in Barcelona promoted by the Government of Catalonia, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and University of Barcelona.

The close interaction of nearly 100 research groups, supported by state-of-the-art Core Facilities, drives forward original multidisciplinary research to investigate the most common diseases in our society and translate its results to clinical practice. With an annual scientific production of around 1,500 original articles, including multiple clinical guidelines, and >2,000 active competitive projects and clinical trials, IDIBAPS is one of the leading biomedical research institutes in Spain with an international projection.

The institute is in the vibrant Campus Clínic, closely interacting with the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Barcelona.
IDIBAPS offers excellent working conditions, as ensured by the HRS4R (European Commission) since 2015. IDIBAPS is a research centre that belongs to Catalan CERCA network of public research institutes (www.cerca.cat) and holds the accreditation as Health Research Institute by the National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) since 2009.

Candidate profile

IDIBAPS is seeking applicants with a proven-track record in leadership, a distinguished record of scientific excellence and the innovative thinking necessary to lead a dynamic organisation. The selected candidate will commit to the challenge of increasing the IDIBAPS scientific reputation and boosting the institute’s basic, translational and clinical research towards societal and health impact. Moreover, the selected candidate will integrate her/his research activities within IDIBAPS. The IDIBAPS is an equal opportunities employer and women are strongly encouraged to apply.

Job description

The new Director should nurture a stimulating environment for interdisciplinary and translational research in biomedicine and define the overall scientific, technological and innovation vision for the institute. The Director should foster an institutional culture encompassing collaboration, integrity, transparency, collegiality and scientific creativity with the ultimate goal to generate and translate new knowledge to improve the health of our society.

Calendar

  • 1/Oct – Call opening.
  • 15/Nov – Application deadline.

First Meeting of Minister Montserrat with Directors of CERCA Centres

  • Minister Montserrat: “We must work systematically so that research centres continue to address the major scientific challenges.”

  • The Minister advocates for networked collaboration to tackle challenges such as the implementation of AI in research and the enhancement of innovation and knowledge transfer.

This morning, the Minister for Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, met with the directors of CERCA research centres with the aim of “gaining first-hand knowledge of the research being carried out at each centre and, at the same time, identifying opportunities for shared, networked research in order to address the major challenges facing the scientific landscape, such as the potential of artificial intelligence and the digitalisation of research data.

In her address, the head of Research and Universities emphasised the importance of centres “fostering synergies to continue advancing towards the shared goal of making a positive impact on society and the planet as a whole, working systematically, consolidating and training talent, while also improving our management teams.” The Minister also highlighted the need for Catalan centres to participate in European research infrastructures by engaging in their calls, and to firmly commit to innovation and knowledge transfer.

Laia Pellejà, director of CERCA, also addressed the directors, stressing that her institution “is being strengthened to provide you with support in new areas such as open science and the implementation of plans and strategies derived from the Catalan Science Law.

Following the Minister’s welcome remarks, the directors of the CERCA centres took the floor to present the main lines of work and future priority projects of their respective centres.

In addition to Minister Montserrat, the meeting was attended by the Director General for Research, Joan Gómez Pallarès, and the Director General for Knowledge Transfer and Society, Laia Arnal i Aras.

Carme Cascante, new Director of the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica

  • Her leadership comes as CRM celebrates 40 years as Spain’s oldest and internationally renowned mathematics research centre.

The Governing Board of the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica (CRM) approved the appointment of Professor Carme Cascante Canut as the new director of the centre in its meeting on July 2. Cascante, a professor at the Department of Mathematics at the University of Barcelona (UB), succeeds Lluís Alsedà i Soler in this position.

Professor Cascante brings an extensive academic and research career to her new leadership role at CRM. She has been a professor at UB since 1989, where, in addition to her teaching and research activities, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Director of the Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath). She earned her PhD at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) under the supervision of Professor Joaquim Bruna, a former director of the CRM himself. Her primary research areas focus on complex analysis in one and several variables, particularly, the study of Carleson measures, pointwise multipliers, Hankel and Toeplitz operators on spaces of holomorphic functions in the unit ball. I am also interested in bilinear forms on Sobolev spaces.

Her appointment marks a pivotal moment of transition and renewal for CRM, as she is the first director from one of the recently affiliated universities. This shift highlights the centre’s dedication to fully integrating the University of Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) into both its research framework and governance.

Centre for Genomic Regulation open call for director

The CRG is seeking applicants with a proven track experience in scientific excellence and leadership, innovation, people management, organisational management, knowledge of international research systems.

The Director must have full time dedication and a firm and deep belief in the CRG’s mission and institutional values.

Selection Procedure

The full field of candidates will be reviewed by an international high level search panel. Candidates will be invited to interview with the panel and it is very much hoped that the final shortlist of candidates will be able to visit the Institute and meet with the Senior Faculty. The final list of preselected candidates will be sent to the Board of trustees that could interview them and they will appoint the new Director.

More information at the centre website.

Salvador Ventura, new director of the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT)

Dr. Salvador Ventura Zamora has been appointed director of the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT)-CERCA by the Taulí of Trustees of the institution.

Ventura will assume the leadership of the I3PT from September 1, 2024.

He holds a degree in Biology from the University of Barcelona (UB), a master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the UAB.

“It is a privilege for me to assume the direction of the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute. I am very grateful to the Taulí of Trustees for their trust and I hope to be able to contribute to the Institute’s growth and scientific excellence. I face this new stage with the desire to find solutions to the great challenges in health, working together with the excellent professionals of Parc Taulí”, declared the new director.

Ventura is ICREA Academy researcher and professor from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Biosciences of the UAB. His research career has developed mainly in the area of conformational diseases caused by protein misfolding. From 2017 to 2020, Ventura has been director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Biomedicine (IBB) “Vicent Villar i Palasí” of the UAB. In 2022 he received the Narcís Monturiol Medal to scientific and technological merit and has recently been elected member of the European Academy in recognition of his research work.

The challenges of the new direction

The new direction of the I3PT aims to continue driving the scientific and innovative excellence of the professionals of Parc Taulí, especially in the international arena, with an impact on improving the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this sense, one of the main challenges is to promote the two transversal areas of research – Data and Technological Innovation in Health and omics – so that collaborative projects can be carried out with research groups; the collection of resources to provide the Institute with the most advanced infrastructures and equipment; the promotion of activity related to clinical trials; the promotion of the recruitment and retention of talent; and collaboration with other sector institutions and technology companies.

Along these lines, during a visit to the I3PT, accompanied by the general director of the CSPT, Anna Aran, and the current director of the Institute, Lluís Blanch, Ventura explained:

“at a time of technological revolution and knowledge in biomedicine, the I3PT is ready and willing to lead this change. We aspire to consolidate ourselves as a leading institution in international health innovation, fostering a synergy of cutting-edge basic, clinical and translational research”

Dr Salvador Ventura

The first edition of the ‘Mapping of research in the space sector in Catalonia’ is now open

The Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC), the CERCA Institute and the Government of Catalonia promote the first edition of the ‘Mapping of research in the space sector in Catalonia’. The launch of the initiative aims to obtain an updated and detailed census of the existing research centers, universities and technological centers in Catalonia in which scientific and technological research linked to the space sector is carried out.

The mapping is expected to show the existing knowledge areas with research and innovation activities that have space as an object of study or as a research platform, and with a wide scope that covers from basic research, to research closer to the productive sector and applications. And it will allow the existing skills in the Catalan ecosystem to be analysed.

The results obtained from the analysis of the data will be published and presented in a workshop that will encourage the dissemination of the activities of the research ecosystem and encourage cooperation between the agents that make up the ecosystem.

If you are a research centre, university or technological centre in Catalonia and you develop scientific and technological research linked to the space sector, we encourage you to participate by answering one of these two questionnaires:

1. Complete questionnaire: recommended if your centre or entity did not complete the questionnaire “Mapping the NewSpace Ecosystem in Catalonia” coordinated by the Government of Catalonia through the Department of Business and Work and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, with the collaboration of the IEEC and the i2Cat Foundation.

2. Simplified questionnaire: recommended if your centre or entity has already completed the questionnaire “Mapping the NewSpace Ecosystem in Catalonia” coordinated by the Government of Catalonia through the Department of Business and Work and the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, with the collaboration of the IEEC and the i2Cat Foundation.

The questionnaire will remain open until 28 June 2024.

The questionnaire is written entirely in Catalan.

For any questions, you can consult IEEC’s website or write to participa@ieec.cat.

Programme to boost innovation in social sciences: training days

The Social Sciences and Humanities centres of CERCA system work on transfer and innovation with Dr. Jessica Meijer

On May 27th and 28th, the social sciences and humanities centres of the CERCA system worked with Jessica Meijer, head of innovation and business development at LURIS, the transfer unit of Leiden University, as part of the programme to promote innovation and transfer started in January.

The aim of the programme is promoting innovation and transfer activities according to the specificities of these centres. It is accompanied by training and mirrors the way transfer is done in European research institutions.

In one-to-one sessions, Meijer reviewed the Krazy Action Plans created by the centres. “They have come up with crazy ideas and have allowed themselves to fail”, told the Dutch researcher. Among the proposals, there are communication projects to enhance transfer, podcast series and research projects made in collaboration with STEM centres.

The programme included a training session by Meijer, which was about the importance of patenting ideas and the meaning of patents in the social sciences and humanities. The session on impact policies was run by Nicky Buckley, from the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge.

New Computational Social Sciences programme in the BSC

Mariona Sanz and Mercè Crosas from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center presented a project which combines applications of data and supercomputing in social science research. Crosas: “It’s just taking off; we are open to new collaborations and want to work on transfer in an ethic and responsible way”.