ICCUB and BGSMath receive the distinction María de Maeztu and IBEC obtains Severo Ochoa Excellence Award
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), a research centre of the University of Barcelona (UB), has received the distinction María de Maeztu given by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to six centres. The award honours excellence at research centres located at universities. The Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath), a centre fostered by the Faculty of Mathematics of the UB by means of its Institute of Mathematics, has also received the award.
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), a research centre of the University of Barcelona (UB), has received the distinction María de Maeztu given by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness to six centres. The award honours excellence at research centres located at universities. The Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics (BGSMath), a centre fostered by the Faculty of Mathematics of the UB by means of its Institute of Mathematics, has also received the award.
Moreover, the Secretary of State for Research, Development and Innovation has granted two new accreditations with the programme Centres of Excellence Severo Ochoa. One of these accreditations has been given to the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), a centre located at the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) and led by Josep Samitier, professor of Electronics from the UB. The Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB), a centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) located at the PCB, has also received the distinction María de Maeztu.
Centres awarded with the distinction María de Maeztu will receive 500,000 euros per year during a four-year period. Centres do not have own legal status and their research staff is composed by members of the teaching and research staff of a university school, department or institute. Centre evaluation was performed by 115 prestigious international researchers.
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The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB (ICCUB) is an interdisciplinary centre devoted to fundamental research in the field of cosmology, as well as to the technological applications of the sciences of the cosmos in general. Lluís Garrido, professor in the Department of Structure and Constituents of Matter of the UB, is the director and Josep M. Paredes is the scientific director. Founded in 2006, ICCUBʼs main objectives are to promote the role played by scientific teams in facing scientific challenges in the field of cosmos physics and to foster their collaboration in international projects.
Besides ten ICREA research professors, the ICCUB gathers members of the teaching and research staff of the Faculty of Physics, particularly researchers in the departments of Astronomy and Meteorology, Structure and Constituents of Matter, and Fundamental Physics, as well as some researchers in other faculties.
The ICCUB has played a major role in the mission Gaia of the European Space Agency (ESA). It coordinates the management and data reduction of the mission. The centre also collaborates in other ESAʼs missions, for example Solar Orbiter.
In the field of accelerators and particle detectors, the ICCUB participates in the experiment LHCb of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the headquarters of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), in Geneva (Switzerland). ICCUB researchers are now designing and producing an updated LHCb detector.
ICCUB researchers also collaborate in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III), one of the most ambitious projects to study distant galaxies. Researchers in the areas of experimental particle physics and high energy astrophysics participate in international projects, for instance MAGIC and CTA telescopes, aimed at gamma rays detection.
Concerning the general diffusion of science, ICCUB researchers participate in different projects to communicate scientific knowledge in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics and particle physics.