Pioneering Science in Catalonia

The research system of Catalonia leads a large part of Spain’s most advanced research projects in science and technology. The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), a pioneer in the field of quantum communications is working towards implementation of the first phases of European Quantum Internet. The ALBA Synchrotron is launching a unique facility in Spain that will allow the development of new, superior materials for the energy transition. The Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC) is designing diagnostic devices, nanopharmaceuticals, and other new therapies for more personalised medicine. The Institute of High Energy Physics (IFAE) is developing groundbreaking technologies that will enable deeper study of the universe and its components.

With this panel discussion that opens the “Radical Science” programme, Lluís Torner (founding director of ICFO), Caterina Biscari (director of ALBA Synchrotron), Josep Samitier (director of IBEC), and Eugenio Coccia (director of IFAE) will present today’s most strategic agendas of state-of-the-art research and discuss their impact on knowledge and society. The roundtable will be presented by Judit Carrera, director of the CCCB, and Joan Gómez Pallarès, the Catalan Government's General Director of Research and Universities.

The session will open with the screening of Superradiance, an audiovisual work by artists Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter, which combines artificial intelligence, dance, and neuroscience in a journey that challenges our abilities to understand and feel.