About us

IDIBAPS: Research for the future

Ramon Gomis Director of IDIBAPS

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the institutional website of the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS).

The research activities of the centre are divided up into 6 different areas, which include more than 50 top-level research teams. Scientific breakthroughs are never the result of chance. They are long-term commitments that involve not only researchers, but also society as a whole. IDIBAPS is a consortium that assumes one of these commitments in Catalonia: To encourage translational research, innovation and technological progress in the field of biomedicine, through different programmes addressing diseases with a high prevalence, morbidity and mortality. Its website reflects this activity.

Furthermore, IDIBAPS has signed a programme contract with the Catalan Government until the year 2012 that defines the development of scientific priorities and is accompanied by an external evaluation of all the research groups with the aim of assessing their scientific excellence. In addition, IDIBAPS is accredited as a Healthcare Research Institute by the Carlos III Health Institute, which is yet another external indicator of the importance of the scientific work it has carried out. Within the framework of this new institute, the foundations are being laid for stable cooperation with other benchmark institutions, such as the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute (IRB) and the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu.

Scientific output and collaborations

In 2008, IDIBAPS published a total of 736 original articles in international journals, with a global impact factor of 3,421. This means that the average per article is 4.65 points. The scientific output of IDIBAPS has grown year after year, and is now stable at around 700 articles per year. The challenge is not so much to increase the number of publications, but to improve their scientific quality and at the same time increase the innovative impact with respect to findings.

I should also like to mention the growing participation of IDIBAPS in national and international major projects such as Spain’s Networked Biomedical Research Centres (CIBERs), promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. We are leaders of the CIBER on liver and digestive diseases (CIBERehd), the one on respiratory diseases (CIBERes) and the one on diabetes and related metabolic disorders (CIBERdem). We continue to participate in and lead projects of the Cooperative Research Thematic Networks (RETICs), also promoted by the Carlos III Health Institute, and the number of projects financed by the European Commission in which we take part also continues to grow day by day. At present, IDIBAPS coordinates 14 of these and participates in another 50. We also cooperate with projects developed by the CRESIB, the motor of our International Health programme, and in initiatives of other institutions such as Fundació Carreras, Fundació Cellex, Fundació Sardà Farriol and Fundació Seny, among others.

Committed to the future

During this difficult time, when the western world is immersed in an economic upheaval, commitment to research and innovation is becoming ever more critical. Some segments of society are still unaware of the critical role of research in the progress of humankind, or in biomedical research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Many years of scientific research may pass before some of the findings can be used in clinical practice. History shows that quality scientific research with ambitious objectives is the basis for developing a scientific and technological system, while supporting private enterprise in order to give practical application to that research.

In this respect, IDIBAPS, together with the consortium’s member institutions (Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, the Catalan Government and the CSIC), assume the commitment to strengthen their calling in the field of biomedical research and to take an active part in promoting the new CIBEK research building, through the activities of the Fundació Clínic and Fundación Esther Koplowitz, and in other structural initiatives for support to research, aimed specifically at incorporating talent through its own programmes, and also through collaboration with those proposed by ICREA, Ramon y Cajal, Miquel Servet and Río Hortega.

We believe that this joint commitment will allow us not only to consolidate what we have already achieved, but to be committed to achieving a much better scientific, economic and social future. All in all, I have nothing but admiration for the professionals who have made this Institute what it is today, and this allows me to look to the future with optimism. We have achieved many things, but we can most certainly achieve many more.

I invite you all to get to know us better through the website and, if you so wish, join our team of excellent researchers and professionals of every type.