While waiting for the CaixaResearch Institute to open at the end of 2025, the center, which aims to become a world leader in immunology, is already starting to confirm its first researchers and secure collaboration agreements. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, and the President of the "La Caixa" Foundation and of the CaixaResearch Institute Board of Trustees, Isidro Fainé, have signed a collaboration agreement to promote projects that strengthen the Catalan health research ecosystem and create synergies between the future scientific complex and other research centers.
With an area of 20,000 square meters, the CaixaResearch Institute, which is being built a few steps from Cosmocaixa, will have capacity for 45 research groups and 500 professionals by 2033, when it is expected to be fully operational. The new center will be dedicated to applying immunology to cancer and metabolic, infectious, and neurological diseases, becoming the first of its kind in Spain and one of the first in Europe.
The President of the Generalitat highlighted that public-private collaboration is essential to "improve the lives of citizens and place Catalonia among the 50 most innovative regions in Europe." Illa emphasized that the Government's commitment to science "is firm" and that "all resources and alliances will be invested so that Catalonia can deploy its full potential in economic and innovation matters."
With this agreement, both institutions commit to joining efforts to identify, develop, and execute concrete actions in different areas of activity that allow for the collaborative promotion of research and innovation projects with other centers attached to the Department of Health and the Department of Research and Universities.
The center will focus on immunology, and has confirmed as its first scientists Josep Dalmau, a pioneer in the identification of several autoimmune encephalitis syndromes, and Gabriel Rabinovich, discoverer of new tumor escape mechanisms, with a focus on colon cancer, with Dr. Josep Tabernero as director of the scientific committee.
The President of the Generalitat also claimed that, while the policies of other countries like the United States with Donald Trump "renounce or attack science," Catalonia is committed to strengthening its research ecosystem and attracting talent.