Internationalisation is a strategic activity through which IRB Barcelona can increase its scientific excellence and boost its economic potential. International leadership is achieved through simultaneous actions of diverse natures, such as increasing international funding, enhancing visibility among international research institutions and entities, fostering international partnerships and alliances, increasing international recruitment, etc.
The AECC Excellence Program: Metastasis
The Spanish Association Against Cancer supports IRB Barcelona to boost metastasis research.
The Spanish Association Against Cancer and IRB Barcelona maintain a pioneering collaboration to address one of the most pressing challenges in cancer research: metastasis. The AECC Excellence Program: Metastasis, endowed with 2 million euros and with a planned duration of 4 years, will tackle metastasis through a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on generating knowledge and applying it to the development of innovative prognostic and therapeutic strategies.
Translational Research and Innovation Programme (TRIP)
IRB Barcelona launches two new initiatives, with the support of ”la Caixa” Foundation through the “CaixaResearch Clinical Translation” initiative and the Department of Health of the Government of Catalonia.
1. International agreements
IRB Barcelona believes that scientific institutes must maintain close ties with the wider research community. To this end, we have numerous initiatives to ensure that our researchers establish fruitful collaborations with other scientists, research facilities and hospitals. Our collaborations go beyond borders, with formal agreements with institutes worldwide working in similar fields and with similar interests. These partnerships allow for the exchange of knowledge and expertise and provide researchers the opportunity to spend periods in other centres.
2. International Coordinated Projects
IRB_DREAM (H2020, MSCA-COFUND, GA945352, 2021-2026)
The IRB predoctoral fellowship programme (IRB_DREAM) offers 10 four-year fellowships in two separate calls to young and talented researchers to undertake their PhD theses in one of our 27 laboratories. IRB_DREAM intends to revamp our current PhD Programme by adding an innovative dimension, namely the customisation of both the training offer and career development, to its already recognised excellence in research.
EVOMET (H2020, MSCA-ITN, GA 955951, 2021-2025)
Evomet is an international consortium that comprises some of the best academic, clinical and industrial organisations in cancer and metastasis research in Europe. It aims to create a high-level training programme to decipher the mechanisms underlying metastases, a lethal hallmark of a disease that affects more than 3.5 million people in Europe. Fifteen fellows will participate in a multidisciplinary research and training programme aimed at fostering scientific, technical and transferable skills through seminars, workshops, annual meetings and schools and a well-thought scheme of secondments designed to exploit the complementarities between projects, sectors and expertise.
ENABLECARES (H2020, SwafS, GA101006361, 2021-2023)
ENABLECARES seeks to provide high-level training on Open Science, entrepreneurship and other related transferable skills to talented young scientists in Europe, with the aim to empower them and give them the tools necessary to pursue a professional career in academia or beyond. The outcomes of the project will set the basis for further actions to modernise PhD programmes, thereby leading to greater employment opportunities.
ENABLE (H2020, Science with and for Society, GA 724115, 2016-2021)
ENABLE seeks to promote excellence in the biomedical sciences in Europe by supporting young researchers, strengthening scientific careers, and bringing biomedicine closer to society. The central piece of the project is an annual 3-day international congress on biomedicine organised by and for young biomedical scientists: Barcelona 2017, Copenhagen 2018, Nijmegen 2019, Milan 2021. The organisers are young researchers from four renowned European Research Institutes (IRB Barcelona – Spain, RIMLS – Netherlands, NNF CPR – Denmark, SEMM – Italy) and an innovative science communication agency (Scienseed).
MuG (H2020, EINFRA-2015, GA676556, 2015-2018)
The Multiscale Complex Genomics project aimed to develop a new cloud-based computational infrastructure that integrates tools and pipelines to allow navigation and visualisation of genomics data from sequence to 3D/4D chromatin dynamics. The Virtual Research Environment (VRE) has been active since November 2017.
IRB Barcelona has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe research and innovation programmes".
FINAL NOTE: IRB Barcelona has received funding from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación within the Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020 (Europa Redes y Gestores – Europa Centros Tecnológicos 2019 call) to foster the participation of the institute in H2020 calls (“Impulso a la participación en H2020 y a la internacionalización del IRB Barcelona (IRBInterH)"). Amount: €237,500. Reference: ECT2019-000405.
3. Other initiatives and partnerships
The ground-breaking science performed at IRB Barcelona drives its participation in large international consortia. Our researchers are involved in the following large-scale scientific endeavours:
