UB Institutes UBNeuro and IQTCUB, awarded with María de Maeztu award

In fact, both institutes will receive the María Maeztu award, which accounts for two million euros each (500,000 euros every year for four years). Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu awards promote the institutional strengths and give the awarded centers and units a high degree of autonomy for the funding of their research plans, which include actions aimed at reinforcing their scientific structures, increasing international leadership, strengthening collaboration with other research centers and with the environment, and contribute to the training and attraction of talents. This is the biggest distinction for excellence centers and units in Spain.

“The given distinctions to the Institute of Neurosciences and the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry of the UB result from quality research and the efforts made by our research staff. Moreover, these are added to the ones given to ICCUB, BGSMath, IRB and IBEAC, making the UB and its centers stand out in Spain when it comes to research”, states the rector of the UB, Joan Elias.

“The María de Maeztu is an award for all the researchers in the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB who work to unveil one of the most exciting scientific challenges, to understand the functioning and pathology of the human brain”, notes Jordi Alberch, director of the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB. “This award -adds the researcher- will enable us consolidate and improve the leadership of the University of Barcelona in the field of neurosciences internationally, covering multidisciplinary and cross-sectional issues, from the most molecular area to the clinical one. The main objective for the next years will be to promote international collaboration, innovation and knowledge transfer in this field”, concludes Alberch.

Eliseo Ruiz, director of IQTCUB, notes “the presented project suggest reinforcing young talent attraction, and will also promote collaboration with external groups and companies. Also, the economic aid will allow us to speed up the development of new tools such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and will get us ready for a future in which exascale computing and quantic computers will be available”. 

Both centers join the list of centers with a María de Maeztu award in the UB, among which are the Institute of Cosmos Science (ICCUB, UB institute) and Barcelona Graduate  School of Mathematics (with UB participation through IMUB), apart from other centers with UB participation, awarded with Severo Ochoa award: Institute of Biomedical Research (IRB), Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), and the Center for Research in Agricultural Genomics  (CRAG).

About the Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro)
In December 2015, the Institute of Neurosciences of the University of Barcelona was officially created out of the evolution of the former Research Institute on Brain, Cognition and Behaviour. The institute includes 74 permanent staff members. The transdisciplinary role of the institute is notable since the institute is present in four campuses of the University, belonging to the faculties of Medicine and Health Sciences, Pharmacy and Food Sciences, and Psychology.  
The research activities that are carried out take place in prestigious clinical centers of Barcelona such as Hospital Clínic, Bellvitge University Hospital, and Sant Joan de Déu Hospital.

UBNeuro works on the knowledge of the central nervous system, from neural biology, formation of neural circuits, to the global function of the brain which gives place to the cognitive function and creates consolidated research lines for neurobiology, neuropharmacology, pathopsychology and cognitive neuroscience.
The Institute holds the 35th position in the US News Best Global Universities Ranking and has received five ERC Grants for the excellence of its researchers. Moreover, the Institute has four ICREA research professors and four ICREA Academia. During 2013-2016, UBNeuro has taken place in eighteen international projects, eight of them being H2020 projects (two of these were coordinated by the Institute). Research activities carried out with 1,100 publications during the period 2013-2016 had a remarkable scientific impact, ten citations of our staff during that time exceeded 1,5 times the average citations of those disciplines.

About the Institute of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry (IQTCUB)
IQTCUB is a UB research institute that was created in 2007 as a continuation of the Research Center on Theoretical Chemistry (CeRQT), created in 1997. The center is dedicated to research in the field of computational chemistry, both in the development of analysis methods and the application to system studies in different fields: energy/catalysis, electronic and magnetic nanodevices, and biochemical systems.

It groups 34 permanent teaching staff members in the faculties of Chemistry and Pharmacy and Food Sciences, apart from four ICREA researchers, with a total of 100 members, including postdoc researchers and master and PhD students.

It has been given a grant by the European Research Council (ERC) and takes part in five European projects. The groups of this center are intensive users of the Barcelona Supercomputer Center and have two PRACE European projects with more than 60 million analysis hours.

Among its research indicators during the years 2013-2016 are the publications of 417 articles in indexed journals, a 84 % of them being in the first quartile.