External News

A letter of support to Prof. Heribert Barrera, after the City Council of Barcelona withdrew his City Gold Medal this year 2020, awarded to him posthumously in 2012. 

María Blasco, Director of the CNIO and until now vice president of SOMMa (the Alliance of Severo Ochoa centers and María de Maeztu units of excellence), substitutes Luis Serrano, Director of the CRG and president of SOMMa since its origins, in 2017. 

A massive cut in European budget is putting at risk Pillar 1 of Horizon Europe, the one devoted to Excellent Science and that includes, to name a few, the funds for the ERC and MSCA projects, which are the main tools that researchers have to develop new ideas and open new research paths at the frontier of science. There is still time to sign the campaing #RescueHorizonEurope to assign the additional €4 billion of Horizon Europe to Pillar 1. 

ICMAB researcher Clara Viñas gave a lecture at the Women of Distinction in Materials Science Workshop entitled "Towards purely inorganic nanomaterials: new opportunities of boron clusters in biomaterials and medicine" which you can find now in our YouTube channel. 

On November 5, 2020, at 12:30 pm, discover how nanotechnology is revolutionizing the agri-food sector with the help of the Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI), the Servei d’Innovació Agroalimentària del Departament d’Agricultura, Ramaderia, Pesca i Alimentació (DARP), the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute of the UB (IN2UB), in collaboration with the University of Lleida (UdL) and the ICMAB-CSIC. 

A high number of scientific societies and associatios, industrial clusters and companies in Spain, including the SOMM Alliance (Alliance of Severo Ochoa Centers and María de Maeztu Units) have signed a document in which they urge all political parties to adopt a stable framework with urgent demands for the advance of R+D+I in Spain. The announcement is made in light of the recent approval of the preliminary draft of the Spanish government’s budget, which announces an investment of more than five billion euros in science

The second edition of The Annual Congress of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (II CANN-2020) hosted by the Catalan Society of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (SCN2) will focus on the recent developments on Nanobiomedicine in the region of Catalonia. This year, due to the current situation, it will be held online on 19 November 2020. 

The European Commission has launched a Manifesto to maximise the accessibility of research results in the fight against COVID-19. The manifesto provides guiding principles for beneficiaries of EU research grants for coronavirus prevention, testing, treatment and vaccination to ensure that their research results will be accessible for all and guarantee a return on public investment.

The Department of Postgraduate and Specialization of the CSIC organizes the  "II Conference for CSIC Doctoral Students" (II Jornada de Doctorandos del CSIC) online on Friday,16 October 2020. Deadline to register is the day before, 15 October 2020.  

On 25 September 2020, Rafael Navarro passed away in Zaragoza. He was a Materials Science Professor at the University of Zaragoza and the Institute of Materials Science of Aragon (currently, Institute of Nanoscience and Materials of Aragon, INMA). He was also a friend and collaborator of many ICMAB researchers working in the field of magnetic oxides and superconductors. 

Within the framework of the celebration of the 2020 European Research & Innovation Days, different aspects of the R+D policy were addressed, including the next R+D Framework Programme, Horizon Europe (2021-2027). During the session "Get ready: A new ERA for Equality is calling", Jean-Eric Paquet, General Director of Research and Innovation of the European Commission, announced that every legal entity (public body, research center or higher education institution) must have an equality plan in place to access funding from the next Framework Programme.

The Nature Index 2020 Science Cities was released this September 2020, and is based on the research papers published during 5 years (2015-2019) in 82 international journals of high quality research, chosen by an independent group of researchers. In the general ranking, we find that Barcelona and its metropolitan area is in the position number 40, within the top 50 Science Cities of the world. Congratulations to all researchers in the Barcelona area who make it possible!

The future Neutron Difractometer at Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, Frane, is looking for a Doctor and a Senior Technician to work in its installations. Deadline to apply: 20 July 2020.

The Institute of Electrical Engineering, Slovak Academy of Sciences, is offering four postdoctoral job offers in the fiels of High-Temperature Superconductors! Take a look here if you are interested!

As response to the COVID-19 pandemic starts to take shape, the field of research places its eyes in the future. What they see is less than comforting. Spanish researchers start organizing to show the precariousness they face in their careers under the hashtag #SinCienciaNoHayFuturo #NoScienceNoFuture. At the same time, two major initiatives demand more funding for research all across Europe, already trying to stop the next crisis that will happen. All of these events, happening on the same day (17 June 2020), point out the difficulties that have been affecting the scientific area and that will keep existing unless action is taken. 

The insidious effects of gender disparity affect all the facets of our society. In times of crisis, all forms of inequality -including those based on gender, but also race, or sexuality- are often aggravated. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Unidad de Mujeres y Ciencia of the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación establishes a series of actions that the scientific community must consider in order to both track this disparity and minimize its effects. The report highlights that the gender gap in scientific productivity, exacerbated in this crisis, will have consequences for women researchers' careers.

Job openings in the framework of the MSCA-ITN “Coordination Chemistry Inspires Molecular Catalysis”  to carry out your PhD! Take a look at the offers here. The UAB is a partner of this ITN. 

The ALBA Synchrotron has released its Annual Report 2019. The document covers the most remarkable activities of 2019, a selection of scientific highlights, technology reviews and facts & figures of the facility last year. Three research studies in which the ICMAB researchers have collaborated with the ALBA Synchrotron are featured in the Report. 

The importance of research has come to the forefront during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. However, the specific needs of such an exceptional context have put a strain on the way research is conducted, as well as communicated. On the interest of research integrity, the CIR-CAT has released a statement including some points indicating a few facets of the research process that are worth strengthening in the face of adversity.

The initiative "Science in the media" calls for an improvement of society’s scientific knowledge through the use of mass media. It does so through a manifesto signed by several professional, scientific and social organisations, and directed towards the CCMA and the Govern de la Generalitat.

The May12 initiative is an opportunity for the mathematical community to celebrate women in mathematics. The initiative is supported by several organisations for women in mathematics. The day is chosen because it is the birthdate of Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian mathematician at Stanford University, expert in geometry and dynamical systems and Fields Medal awardee. She died from cancer in 2017 with 40 years old. A the ICMAB we want to join this celebration that aims to inspires women and men to pursue their dreams in science and mathematics.

A few weeks ago we shared with you the beginning of the touring exhibition "Científiques Catalanes 2.0”, which featured more than 20 leading researchers from various STEAM disciplines and scientific outreach, including ICMAB researchers Anna Roig and M. Rosa Palacín. The contents of this exhibition can now be viewed (and downloaded!) online, on the Associació Catalana de Comunicació Científica's (ACCC) website.

Today, 28 April 2020, is the World Day for Safety and Health at Work. Recognizing the great challenge that governments, employers, workers and whole societies are facing worldwide to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Day for Safety and Health at Work will focus on addressing the outbreak of infectious diseases at work, in particular, on the COVID-19 pandemic. At the ICMAB we take this job very seriously, and the Health and Safety Committee, with the help and compromise of all of us, will ensure that we will all have a safe return to our work. 

The ninth edition of "Ciencia en Redes" (Science in the Networks) would have been last Friday, 13 March 2020 in Cosmocaixa Barcelona, but due to the current circumstances, it was cancelled. Now, the organization has decided to program the event online, and it wil be on April 29 and 30, 2020, from 11 am to 12:30 pm through the YouTube channel of the AECC (Spanish Association of Science Communication), and free of charge. If you like science and social networks, don't miss it!

On April 3, 2020, an extraordinarily determined, active and kindperson, and a great friend, Prof. Albert Figueras, passed away. He left a deep mark on institutions such as ICMAB and ICN2.

James F. Scott, widely considered the father of integrated ferroelectrics, passed away last April 6, 2020. It’s hard to overstate his influence, as Gervasi Herranz, from the Laboratory of Multifunctional Thin Films and Complex Structures (MULFOX) points out: "Prof. James Scott was one of the most influential materials scientists and he was the most renowned pioneer in the development of ferroelectric memories. His outstanding work will undoubtedly remain a source of inspiration for all of us who work in new applications of ferroelectrics.”

We say goodbye to theoretical physicist Phil Anderson, who helped to build the foundation for our understanding of condensed matter and superconductivity. 

On February 11, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the Salt Water Museum, in collaboration with the Girona Institute for Biomedical Research (IDIBGI), will host the opening of "Científiques Catalanes 2.0", a traveling exhibition featuring women scientists in our territory, whose work is very important for the advancement of science, in all its aspects. The exhibition is coordinated by the ACCC Gender Perspective Group. 

From 11 February 2020 to the 1 March 2020, the exhibition "La ciencia según Forges" will be at the CSIC Residència d'Investigadors. A great opportunity to visit this exhibition, formed by 66 drawings by Forges (Antonio Fraguas) that appeared in the newspaper "El País" from 1995 to 2018. The exhibition is like a tour through the past, present and future of the research in Spain.

The prestigious Nature scientific journal celebrated its 150th anniversary on November 4, 2019. In order to commemorate it, the journal published a video on the role played by the journal in the history of science, and also prepared an interactive graph that explains the complex network created by the co-cited journal articles. More than 88,000 articles are published since 1900. 

We would like to congratulate our colleagues from the NanoEduca programme, created by the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Institut Català de Nanociència i Nanotecnologia (ICN2) and Centre de Recursos Pedagògics Específics de Suport a la Innovació i la Recerca Educativa (CESIRE), for the 2018 National Award on Science Communication (Premi Nacional de Comunicació Científica 2018), which they received last night, Tuesday 3 December 2019, at the TNC. 

The GoNano project organizes the winter school "Creating Social Value with Nanotechnology" on 4-7 February 2020 in Barcelona. The winter school is designed to impart the findings from the project to early stage researchers and to address concepts such as RRI, co-creation, and communication applied to nanotechnology. Deadline for registration is 30 November! Register now before it's too late!

The CSIC in Catalunya and the CSIC "Residència d'Investigadors" organize a cycle about cinema and science during October-November 2019 to celebrate the 150 years of the Periodic Table. The films that will be shown (for free!) are: "Marie Curie", Temple Grandin", "Wall-E" and "Her". All the films will be on Friday at 6:00 pm, and will be introduced by a CSIC researcher. 

The ICMAB stands in solidarity with the global climate strike and supports global climate mobilizations.