Scientific infrastructures are complex and it is difficult to understand what goes on inside them, but they are fundamental pieces for not falling behind. Although terms like synchrotron and supercomputer sound like science fiction, it is here where new drugs are studied and less polluting materials are tested.
Barcelona researches a lot and does it very well, but it still needs to get all its advances to industry so that, finally, citizens can benefit. A reality increasingly assumed by the city's main facilities and its metropolitan area, with all of them immersed in expansions that will allow them to grow and open up to companies.
Artificial intelligence for companies
With 20 years recently completed, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – National Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) is chaining projects, having now become accustomed to making new announcements every short while. "When the BSC was created, no one imagined that we could get to where we have arrived. It started with a staff of 60 workers and today we are 1,300," explains the associate director of the BSC, Josep Maria Martorell. After having launched its fifth supercomputer at the end of 2023, the infrastructure is now preparing to open up to companies, making it easier for them to test their computing tools to develop new artificial intelligence (AI) solutions.
The equipment that will be enabled for companies will be located in the chapel of the Torre Girona, almost empty since the fifth supercomputer was inaugurated in the new BSC headquarters. With an investment of 120 million euros, the large computer for companies will be launched at the end of 2025 and will resemble Marenostrum 5, but will be oriented towards AI. "With the arrival of this technology, the European Commission says that machines like the supercomputer not only have to serve researchers, but we also have to make companies more competitive," Martorell points out. This involves having access to technology and accompanying them with incubation, acceleration, and training programs. To do this, the BSC will enable coworking spaces for interested companies, for which it is looking for where to do it on the UPC's north campus.
Looking ahead to the next supercomputer, Marenostrum 6, the founder of the BSC, Mateo Valero, will not give up until technology made in Europe is included. This is where the dozen spin-offs that have been incubated by the BSC come into play, among them, Openchip.
Manufacturing chips near the Alba Synchrotron
With an estimated investment of 150 million euros, the Alba Synchrotron expansion project will allow it to go from a third-generation synchrotron to a fourth-generation one, improving the properties of the light emitted by this cutting-edge infrastructure located in Cerdanyola del Vallès. The team led by Caterina Biscari has been working for years on the future Alba II, with the aim of having it operational by 2032, with which they will be able to conduct more experiments in areas such as health, climate change, and energy. To advance in that direction, hirings are taking place at the synchrotron, with the forecast of increasing from the current 270 workers to 330 within five years.
Now, they are about to receive the first prototypes of its main component, the accelerator, responsible for accelerating electrons to emit the light used for experiments. This part of the project will entail an outlay of between 60 and 70 million euros. With the transition from the third to the fourth generation, resolution will be gained, and more advanced tests can be performed in less time, which, in turn, will also increase the capacity to conduct experiments. Some possible applications will be the development of new drugs and therapies, green energies, and microchips.
But the synchrotron will not only modernize its technology. The infrastructure will grow beyond its walls, coinciding with the revitalization that the Alba park is experiencing after years of some neglect. "It's hard to recognize it, it's full of new buildings and cranes," remarks Biscari. The synchrotron will extend its beamlines outwards, to adjacent land. These are laboratories that receive the light generated by the acceleration of electrons and use it to analyze samples and obtain information. Biology, medicine, nanotechnology, the environment, and energy are some of the research areas covered by the synchrotron. Alba was inaugurated with a total of seven beamlines and now has 14 lines. In Alba II, three more will be added, two dedicated to life sciences and one to materials.
This last light line will be linked to the InnoFab project, promoted by the Govern and directed by José Antonio Garrido, a researcher at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). With an investment of 400 million euros, the initiative will build a 2,000 square meter clean room to develop chips with materials alternative to silicon. This 2025, 3.5 million euros will be allocated to launch the tender for the engineering project. Precisely, the InnoFab facilities will be open to startups, SMEs, and large companies in the semiconductor sector to give them manufacturing options, one of the main obstacles faced by the local industry.
Test prototypes faster
The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), in Castelldefels, is moving in the same direction. The center has just inaugurated a second building, a few steps from its headquarters. On the first floor of the new building, there is a 600 square meter clean room that will allow Europe to gain sovereignty in the field of photonic chips. In fact, thanks to it, the ICFO has been chosen by the European Commission to coordinate the PIXEurope project, a pilot line to design and manufacture photonic chips, used in phones and computers, but also in sectors such as health and automotive.
China, Taiwan, and Korea lead this market, with a Europe where prototypes are only made on a very small scale. The PIXEurope project will serve to advance in that direction, with a budget of about 400 million euros, of which about 50 million will be for the Baix Llobregat center. "There are many companies that have designed a powerful product but do not have the infrastructure to manufacture prototypes and see if it works," explains the coordinator of the PIXEurope program and researcher Valerio Pruneri. Until now, they had to send it to third parties for validation, with long waiting lists, an issue that the ICFO hopes to tackle to provide more opportunities for local industry. The construction of the pilot line is expected to begin in May, with the forecast that it can be opened to the industry from 2028. For now, a hundred companies have already expressed interest in being able to use the new facilities.
"Quantum chips will reach the market in a few years, so we can still compete," defends the founder of ICFO, Lluís TornerThe ICFO does not stop here and goes a step further, delving into quantum chips, an incipient technology in which there are still possibilities to set the pace. The center leads the Quantum Valley, an initiative of the Government to promote this leadership. "Quantum chips will reach the market in a few years, so we can still compete. We want to accelerate research to bring them to society sooner," defends the founder of ICFO, Lluís Torner.
The Generalitat will contribute 43 million euros for the first five years, a budget that will rise to hundreds of millions of euros with contributions that may come from the Government and European institutions. One of the first concretions of this project will be Qollserola, a fiber optic network that will allow connecting companies and institutions in the city with quantum communication to preserve the security of their data. Those sectors for which this is a critical factor will participate, such as banks, hospitals and public transport operators.