BIST Ignite Awards: Driving multidisciplinary research and innovation at the BIST Forum

On 20 February 2025, the BIST Forum was held at CaixaForum Barcelona. The event provided a platform for strengthening connections across the BIST Community and it opened with remarks from the Minister of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia, Prof. Núria Montserrat; and the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities of the Government of Spain, Diana Morant. Minister Morant pointed out that one-fifth of the jobs in the country are linked to science and technology, which “proves that we are moving towards a shift in the production model.”

The BIST Forum served as a presentation of the BIST Ignite Awards, designed to foster new partnerships across BIST centres, encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to address complex scientific challenges. The Seed stage is a call for new project proposals open to the full BIST Community, and in this 7^th edition, two projects with ICIQ representation were selected:
– BREATH-CO2, aimed on breaking boundaries with the new generation of chiral hybrids for CO₂-electrolysers through atomic-scale visualization, and headed by Dr. Felipe Andrés Garcés Pineda (ICIQ) Dr. Viktoria Golovanova (ICFO) and Dr. Alba Garzón Manjón (ICN2)
– SWITCH, focused on photoswitchable neuroinhibitors based on natural steroids, and led by Dr. Anna Sadurní (ICIQ) and Prof. Pau Gorostiza (IBEC).
These projects each have received €20,000 in initial funding to support their development.

The MOLOPEC-2+ project, under the leadership of Dr. Sergi Grau (ICIQ), Dr. Carles Ros (ICFO) and Dr. Sara Martí (ICN2), was awarded the Ignite Award. The aim of this project is to develop synthetic solar fuels as a sustainable solution for the conversion, storage, and distribution of solar energy. To achieve this, the project combines the expertise of ICFO in the design of photoactive materials, that of ICIQ in the development of chemical compounds that act as catalysts for the reaction, and that of ICN2 in electron microscopy to characterise these materials at a sub-nanometric resolution. This award provides €50,000 to the two most promising projects emerging from the Seeding Stage. This second-phase funding supports the further exploration of the project’s goals, based on the initial results achieved in the first stage.

Round table “Spreading Scientific Culture”

The event featured the round table “Spreading Scientific Culture”, which honoured the contributions of Prof. Joan Guinovart to scientific communication and education, underlining his influence on the BIST Community. This roundtable featured the participation of Dr. Laura Hernández Eguía, Manager of the ICIQ Comunication and Outreach unit.

A discussion about “Shaping Europe’s Future” followed, with prominent figures including Dr. Maria Leptin (President of the European Research Council), Dr. Michiel Scheffer (President of the European Innovation Council), and Dr. Jo Bury (Director Emeritus of the Flanders Institute of Biotechnology). This discussion served also to recognize all the researchers from the BIST Community awarded with an ERC grant during 2024. Among them, Prof. Marcos Garcia Suero was highlighted for his ERC Proof of Concept grant. Furthermore, the BIST Forum included a session on Precision Health, presented by the BIST Community Precision Medicine Taskforce, highlighting ongoing work in personalised medicine and healthy ageing.

The BIST Forum provided ample opportunities for networking and discussion, both in the official sessions and within the welcoming environment of the CaixaForum foyer, where researchers and institutional leaders had the chance to exchange ideas and reflect on the strateg

2024 ERC grantees from the BIST Community