The EMBL-IBEC Winter Conference comes to an end with a huge success in terms of participation
This week, the conference organised by the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) brought together a total of 200 international experts in the field of bioengineering at La Pedrera building in Barcelona.
At the opening of the event, which was led by the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, attention was drawn to Barcelona’s consolidation as an international centre of research and knowledge.
The institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) and the Institute for Complex Molecular Systems (ICMS), a research institute of the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), have signed the first agreement between the two institutes to foster their collaboration. Both research centres share similarities such as their multidisciplinarity, their active missions to connect with industry and clinicians, and a strong research in nanomedicine, chemical biology, chip technology, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. This institutional alliance will allow to share resources, knowledge and provide mobility programs. 
Raimon Jané, President of the Spanish Society of Biomedical Engineering (SEIB), Group Leader of the Bioengineering Institute of Catalonia (IBEC) and CIBER-BBN, inaugurated the conference with the Health Minister of the Government of Cantabria, the Dean of the University of Cantabria, the Director of the Hospital and the President of the CASEIB2019 Organising Committee.
Elisabeth Engel, principal investigator of the “Biomaterials for regenerative therapies” group at IBEC will coordinate a three-year project with the aim of boosting skin self-regeneration. This transnational European consortium composed of four more partners will develop the project over the next 3 years, including Dimitrios Zeugolis (University of Ioannina, Greece), Joan Pere Barret (Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron, Spain), Olivier Stephan (Université Grenoble-Alpes, France) and Denis Barbier (MicroLight 3D, France). 
Yesterday, the Innovative Companies Forum (“FEI”, in Spanish) celebrated the seventh edition of the 2019 “Innovation Awards”. The awards ceremony, which aims to highlight the commitment to innovation of organizations, companies and researchers, recognized the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia’s (or “IBEC”) “Innovation Support Agency”. David Badia, executive director of the institute, received the award during the ceremony, which took place in Madrid. 
As a part of IBEC’s strategy to facilitate the transfer of excellent science into health solutions for patients and hospitals, the Institute fosters relations and partnerships with clinicians and companies. Within this framework, the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia has now launched the IBEC Clinical Colloquia Program.
