ICTA-UAB awarded the "María de Maeztu” Unit of Excellence Award for the second consecutive time

This program aims to recognize excellence in scientific research and includes a grant of 2 million euros throughout a four-year period.

The Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) announced on 15 July 2020 the provisional resolution of its latest call, which recognizes excellence in stable research organisations without a legal personality and located mainly in universities.

The María de Maeztu Excellence Accreditation recognizes and provides funding to research organizations that demonstrate scientific impact and leadership at international level and that actively collaborate with their local social and business environments. The awards distinguish those organizations that have highly competitive, frontier research programs that are among the best in the world in their respective scientific areas.

An independent, international scientific committee made up of researchers of renowned prestige and impact carries out the evaluation and selection process for the María de Maeztu Units of Excellence. The accreditation is valid for four years. The ICTA-UAB will consolidate its scientific capabilities, contribute to the leadership of Spanish research and act as an international pole of attraction for talent.

This is the second time the ICTA-UAB receives this recognition. The first time was in 2016, when the scientific committee reported that there are few places in Europe that can boast of such a rigorous international perspective. In the past four years and under its Strategic Research Programme, its research has focused on establishing the current state of knowledge on climate change and its socio-economic impacts, and on putting forward transformative solutions at the local and regional levels. This has been done through five multidisciplinary strategic projects.

This new call also introduces a new Severo Ochoa center, the Instituto de Ciencas del Mar (ICM, CSIC), and has renewed the accreditation for the Institut Català d’Investigació Química (ICIQ), as well as validated the recognition of the 8 centers that already had the acreditation. There are also three new Maria de Maeztu centers, the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), the Departamento de Agronomía from the Universidad de Córdoba, and the Fundación IMDEA Energía, who are joining three other Units that are renovating their projects, which makes a total of 6 Maria de Maeztu centers and 10 Severo Ochoa centers.

In total, 7 out of the 10 new Severo Ochoa accreditations and 3 out of the 6 new María de Maeztu units have gone to research centers in Catalonia. 

María de Maeztu 2020-2023:
• ICTA-UAB Institut de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientals
• IPHES-Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social
• ICMol-Instituto de Ciencia Molecular
• IMDEA Energía
• Departamento de Agronomía de la Universidad de Córdoba.
• ICCUB-Instituto de Ciencias del Cosmos (UB)

Severo Ochoa 2020-2023:
• ICIQ-Institut Català d’Investigació Química
• CRAG- Centro de Investigación en Agrigenòmica (Consorci CSIC-IRTA-UAB)
• IAC-Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
• CNIO-Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas
• ICFO-Instituto de Ciencias Fotónicas
• ICM-Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CSIC)
• BGSE-Escuela de Graduados de Economía de Barcelona
• ICMAT-Instituto de Ciencias Matemáticas (CSIC, UAM)
• ICMAB-Institut de Ciències Materials de Barcelona (CSIC)
• IRB-Instituto de Investigación Biomédica