Five cents on ICREA

When we talk about research in Catalonia, we sometimes refer to the research ecosystem and other times to the research system. It's important to distinguish between these. The ecosystem is all-encompassing and lacks precise boundaries. You are part of the ecosystem if de facto You are. Being one doesn't depend on credentials. An ecosystem is always something chaotic and disordered. At its best, it's creative and dynamic. When something new ceases to be new and becomes orderly, new initiatives have already emerged that maintain the creative disorder. Catalonia has generated a research ecosystem that has gained considerable weight in Europe. We are relevant in all the arenas where it's necessary to be. But we can't be entirely proud because the ship on which we've gained ground is losing ground globally. Our ambition today should be to participate in European scientific leadership that corrects this situation.

In contrast, the research system, part of the ecosystem, is ordered by legal regulations. An ecosystem without a system at its core is impossible. And a system that hasn't generated an ecosystem around it is very deficient. Currently, the system is governed by the 2022 Science Law. Metaphorically, it depicts the system as consisting of two main walls—universities and research centers—and a cross-support beam, which is ICREA (Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies). This was because the event was held this Friday at the CCCB. its 25th anniversaryI dedicate this article to making you five cents.

With resources from the Generalitat (Catalan government), ICREA's mission is to attract, retain, and recover top-level scientific talent and place it in universities and research centers. It does this through annual calls for applications in which the institution hires around twenty researchers on permanent contracts to work at a center or university. Currently, there are about 300 ICREA researchers, almost half of them in universities. savoir faire The selection of management teams has ensured impeccable quality, resulting in very high academic and economic impacts. Academically, it has undoubtedly played a decisive role in the growth and external recognition of the ecosystem. Economically, ICREA projects attracted €160 million in funding in 2025 alone. On average, they generate more than four times the contribution of the Generalitat (Catalan government) annually and create seven skilled jobs within their teams. Furthermore, their discoveries have led to the creation of 47 technology companies.

ICREA does not have its own centers. Its aim is to help centers and universities achieve high levels of quality and a sufficient critical mass. In this, it resembles the practice of the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), but with one difference: the CNRS establishes joint centers (they call them labsICREA no.

There is a more fundamental aspect in which the ICREA contract differs from the one used by the CNRS. CNRS members are civil servants. ICREA members are permanent employees. It is this characteristic that allows for a personnel policy aligned with best international practices. I should note that the employment contract route in universities has been a long-standing demand in Catalonia. It was also a demand in Spain under Franco and at the beginning of the democratic transition. But in its first university law (1983), unfortunately, the civil service route was chosen. In the second law—from the same year as the creation of ICREA (2001)—an employment route was opened, but it was immediately corrupted by establishing a virtually complete homogenization with the civil service route. To be clear: an effective employment route must have two properties. That positive evaluations for promotion lead automatically to promotion, without going through a public call for applications, which will necessarily be a sham. And once this is established, there should be public calls for applications, and truly open ones, not disguised promotions. An institution must bring in fresh blood at all levels. ICREA contracts are permanent. This is key: you can't expect to hire established talent with temporary contracts of three or five years. However, these are easier to manage administratively and can be useful for the early stages of an academic career. Thus, for attracting very young talent, we have the program of the Center for Interdisciplinary Higher Education (CFIS) at the UPC, and for talent already transitioning to maturity, the Ramón y Cajal program of the State Research Agency. Both are very successful.