IRBio-UB, Biogenome Project – IEC and the II Congress of the Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project

On November 11 and 12, 2025, the Sala Prat de la Riba of the Casa de Convalescència of the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC) was the setting for the Second Congress of the Catalan Initiative for the Earth BioGenome Project.

This global project aims to sequence the genome of the maximum possible number of eukaryotic species, to better understand their origin and functioning, and thus contribute to their conservation and sustainable management.

The event brought together researchers and leading institutions in the field of genomics, who presented the main advances in the genomic sequencing projects of eukaryotic species, funded in the latest calls for proposals of the program. with the aim of advancing the understanding of biodiversity and its conservation.

The Institut de Recerca de la Biodversitat (IRBio) has had a prominent participation, with a presence in 10 of the 25 papers presented. The research promoted by IRBio has covered a wide diversity of organisms —plants, fish, birds, arthropods (some adapted to caves) and various groups of invertebrates, both free-living and commensals— from terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems.

The congress has been a success in terms of participation and scientific exchange, and has allowed the foundations to be consolidated for a second phase of the project, which will strengthen the role of Catalonia and the Catalan-speaking territories in the international efforts of the Earth BioGenome Project.