Miquel A. Pericàs: "The strength of the BIST lies in the scientific excellence of its centers, joining forces allows for a multidisciplinary approach to the large-scale challenges facing research today"
Director of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ)
Since October 2016, Dr. Pericàs has combined his position as director of the ICIQ with the responsibility of heading up BIST. Before taking on the role as director of the ICIQ in 2000, he was a professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Barcelona. Pericàs’s research career focused on chemistry and has received Catalan government's Distinction for the Promotion of University Research, the Janssen-Cylag Award from the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry and the Narcís Monturiol Medal from the Government of Catalonia.
Since 2015, the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) has grouped together six research centers of excellence in Catalonia: the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG), Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO); Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE) and Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).
After two years, BIST is beginning to see its dream come true of going beyond the frontiers of knowledge and joining the capacities and potential of the six centers. By setting up several joint scientific projects, the institute has kicked off cutting-edge multidisciplinary research that not only consolidates the work being done by BIST members but also promotes the scientific, economic and social impact of research as a whole.
As soon as it was created, BIST became one of the top scientific institutions in Europe, achieving an international positioning that would have been impossible for any of the member centers on their own. What other opportunities does this initiative offer for the BioRegion?
The strength of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology lies in the scientific excellence of its centers, which increases exponentially when we join forces and resources –allowing us to gain critical mass- but above all when we share capacities, because this allows for a multidisciplinary approach to the large-scale challenges facing research today. One of the first initiatives we launched was to establish a series of strategic research areas (biological chemistry, graphene, big data and advanced microscopy), in which the complementary nature of our capacities would allow us to advance in many arenas including healthcare, clean energy and new materials, in terms of basic research but also innovations that can be transferred to the business sector and, in short, to the people.
But to advance in research you need the best researchers and that is another thing BIST proposes to do: create a challenging environment that can attract the best international talent on all levels - group leaders, postdoc researchers and students- and make Catalonia a global benchmark in research.
Grouping together the top research centers in Catalonia under one brand must have been a complicated task given the different nature of each member. What have been the main challenges you’ve faced in getting them to work together?
If we look at the areas of science they work in, the six BIST centers may seem very different. However, we all share many challenges, in training young researchers, creating the best conditions to attract and retain talent, promoting the transfer of knowledge to society. On the other hand, as you said, we’re very aware of the need for and potential of a multidisciplinary approach in many areas of research. But it takes time for different teams that aren’t located on the same site to forge deeper bonds of mutual understanding and put an efficient methodology into practice.
We are still working on it but are very happy with the initial results we are seeing: the eight multidisciplinary research projects funded through the first call under the Ignite Program; the €10 millions from the European Union (Marie Curie CoFund) for the respective talent and training programs for PhD students and postdoc researchers to be carried out at BIST over the coming five years; our position on the Nature Index, which ranks BIST 95th in the world and 24th in Europe, etc.
The BIST Founding Conference was one of the first and most important milestones in launching the project. What are some of the main milestones and activities proposed for the coming years?
The BIST Founding Conference was a turning point because it was a way to present the project in society. It was the Institute’s first international conference, but our intention is for it to be just the first of a series of international meetings held annually. Plus, we also want these to be a great place to present the advances we’re making in multidisciplinary research in the areas we’ve prioritized and those we may identify in the future. But training researchers is and will be one of our top priorities. We’re preparing the first Master in Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences, with Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), and are already thinking about other possible postgraduate training options, for example in innovative areas like graphene. And we’re also going to delve deeper into talent development and professional career programs and activities for researchers –with special attention to gender issues.
Are there any other similar initiatives in Europe or the world that have been successful with a similar model?
There are some large multidisciplinary research centers we analyzed in setting up this project, like the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel), Francis Crick Institute (London), Beckman Institute (Chicago, USA), CalTech (Pasadena, California, USA), the Max Planck Institutes in Germany... but comparisons aren’t only odious, they’re impossible. Because neither the countries nor the circumstances are the same. What we do, with these and other benchmarks, is identifying best practices and adapting them to our situation. On the whole, what we can learn from these centers of excellence is that committed, ongoing public and private support for top-notch research brings extraordinary social and economic returns.