The Ciutadella del Coneixement is a scientific and cultural initiative that aims to transform the Ciutadella park and its surroundings, turning it into a research hub. The first phase will be located on the plot that was occupied by the city's Old Central Fish Market until the 1980s. This is where the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) will build the project's first research complex. With a total budget of 92.8 million euros, this space will research biomedicine, biodiversity, and planetary well-being, and will bring together 1,200 people in its facilities.
After many delays, the groundbreaking ceremony for this complex is expected to take place in early January. Finally, construction will begin on the Old Fish Market site in early 2023, currently occupied by a B:SM parking lot at street level, which will now become underground and be covered by one of the buildings that will integrate the research complex.
Before the works that will kick off the Ciutadella del Coneixement begin, the second phase of the initiative has already been announced. The Government has communicated that it will locate two institutes of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) very close to this first research complex. The central Executive plans to build a building on land belonging to the Government Delegation of Catalonia, on Doctor Trueta street, where there is a headquarters of the State Mobile Park, an organization responsible for managing vehicles for the representation of high-ranking government officials and the Head of State.
In addition to the two institutes, the new building will house a scientific services center and offices for the Government Delegation. CSIC services will occupy 13,000 square meters of surface area, and the rest, about 4,600 square meters, will be available to the Ministry of Territorial Policy for the Government Delegation to use for offices, electoral storage, rooms for administrative and research staff, furniture storage, parking, and archives. The new center is estimated to bring together more than 300 people and about 40 research groups.
This action has been regulated through a protocol, which contemplates that the CSIC will assume the economic actions and patrimonial and urbanistic management to construct the building. Likewise, to make possible the development of this second phase of the Ciutadella del Coneixement, the Barcelona City Council has to modify the Metropolitan General Plan to be able to host the CSIC institutes. Currently, the land is classified as a green area.