The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology and the success of promoting research by collaborating

There are researchers who focus on biomedical research, some who evaluate the potential of photonics, and others who do so with nanotechnology. Although these are very disparate disciplines, all of them converge at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), a scientific foundation that brings together a total of seven centers of research excellence to help them gain capacity and visibility.

The Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Catalan Institute of Chemical Research (ICIQ), the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE), and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) are part of BIST, which represents almost 2,500 researchers, professors, and students. It has a budget of 3.1 million euros dedicated to fostering research, talent, and innovation. The resources come from the Government, from Europe, and, above all, from private entities such as "la Fundación La Caixa", "Banco Sabadell", "FemCat", "la Fundación Cellex", and "la Fundación Catalunya La Pedrera".

BIST was created in 2015 with the aim of providing critical mass to the different research centers in Catalonia, which were already excellent but lacked strength, with the impulse of former minister Andreu Mas-Colell. Given that the seven centers deal with very specific concepts, the new foundation also had to serve to foster multidisciplinary collaboration among them and imagine different ways of approaching research, in addition to joining efforts to reach where they could not do so alone.

These original objectives have translated into different initiatives that aim to solve these shortcomings of the Catalan research system, which could be remedied by creating critical mass, according to the general director of BIST, Gabby Silberman. An example of the mission pursued by BIST was when it detected that in Catalonia there was a lack of advanced electron optics equipment, which is very expensive and few centers have sufficient resources to buy them on their own.

BIST was created to help Catalan research centers grow, which were already excellent but lacked strength, with the impulse of former minister Mas-Colell

"The role played by BIST was, simply, to bring these people into the system, those of us who identified a common need, and to drive the necessary work to finally obtain the equipment," Silberman explains. Both teams will be ready this year and will allow the Barcelona ecosystem to have the most important advanced microscopy collaboration platform in Southern Europe.

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This is one of many examples of the philosophy behind BIST to join forces to grow the Catalan research system. Collaboration, collaboration, and more collaboration. Like the one it is promoting in the Antiguo Mercado del Pescado to develop a research and innovation complex hand in hand with the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) and the CSIC or to create a school in the Eixample that promotes STEAM disciplines among Secondary and Baccalaureate students.

Another example of this operating mode of the foundation directed by Silberman is the BIST Ignite Programme, which precisely seeks interaction among researchers from the seven centers that make up BIST to strengthen their relationship and relevance and generate innovative approaches to scientific challenges. This program annually selects projects that are in an initial phase and funds them with 20,000 euros for their development. Since its creation in 2016, about twenty projects have been supported.

Excellence is also needed and must be translated into innovation

For Silberman, objectives like those pursued by BIST have an effect beyond adding agents, resources, and initiatives, and multiply the value of the Catalan research system. But collaboration is not enough, he emphasizes. "Collaboration is our nature; you don't get very far alone. Everything we do is collaboration. But you can collaborate and things don't turn out so well, that the actors don't have the capacity to do it and that you are not able to attract the people with whom you have to do these things," he explains. What makes the difference is excellence, which Silberman is sure Catalonia has.

According to him, now, the next step is to translate this excellence into innovation. For this reason, initiatives such as the deep tech fund recently created by the Govern to promote knowledge transfer, with an estimated funding of 80 million euros, are necessary. But a brand must also be created, one that aspires to compare itself to locations like Silicon Valley or Oxford. "We have the capacity and very good people," defends the general director of BIST, who also emphasizes the need to bring back Catalan researchers who have had to leave. "The secret to creating a powerful brand that attracts this talent and brings innovation, business, and progress in its wake is to be excellent," he summarizes.

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Silberman and the origin of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center

Although Silberman arrived in Barcelona just over three years ago to be the general director of BIST, his history with the Catalan capital dates back to 1995. Born in Chile, he studied Computer Science in Israel. The United States became the third country he lived in when he started working for IBM. It was during this period that he came into contact with Barcelona, accompanying Deep Blue, a chess-playing computer that could have even beaten the protagonist of The Queen's Gambit.

At a conference in Barcelona with Deep Blue, Silberman met two people who ended up bringing him back to Barcelona to direct BIST, in addition to being essential for Barcelona's research. Specifically, these two people were the current director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), Mateo Valero, and the former associate director of the BSC, Francesc Subirada, who at that time also worked for IBM. This casual encounter, facilitated by Deep Blue, ultimately allowed for the creation of the BSC itself, as it led to the birth of a center at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) with IBM on computing, which evolved to become the BSC.