End of the long journey to build Barcelona's new biomedical park
Disagreements over funding and spaces had stalled the works of the new PRBB in the Ciutadella, which have already begun
BarcelonaThe works to erect the future Barcelona Ciutadella Biomedical Research Park (PRBB Ciutadella) have begun, the new hub dedicated to research in biomedical innovation and precision medicine that will be located in the old Mercat del Peix of Barcelona. The forecast is that the construction of this scientific facility, which is the cornerstone of the Ciutadella del Coneixement project and the main one of the three that will be located on this site, will last until March 2028 and will not come into operation until the end of the same year.
With capacity for up to 950 researchers in fields as diverse as genomics, cancer or bioengineering, the new PRBB will be located next to Pompeu Fabra University – on Wellington street – on land ceded by the Barcelona City Council and will have a surface area of 24,700 m² which will be distributed over nine floors with a unique architecture. The Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute (IRB Barcelona) will be fully located in this facility, moving its current headquarters from the Barcelona Science Park on Diagonal Avenue, and will occupy 60% of the space, equivalent to about five floors. Another 25% of the space will be dedicated to hosting various groups from the Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), while the remaining 15% will be distributed among the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). The headquarters of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) will also be located there.
"It will be a key piece of the research axis of the Ciutadella del Coneixement," explains Jordi Camí, current director of PRBB Barceloneta, in an interview with ARA. But the journey to get here has not been easy. "It has taken five government agreements and two municipal plenary agreements of Barcelona to move the project forward," recalls Camí. In fact, the project was recently halted for a year and three months and it was he himself who finally managed to unblock and get it moving. "It will multiply the critical mass for frontier research and will become a pole of attraction for international talent that will contribute to consolidating the leadership of Barcelona and Catalonia in biomedical research in Southern Europe," he adds. The current director of PRBB will also assume the direction of this new frontier research center.
The project, which began to take shape in 2017-2018, had been stalled for about a year and a half after the previous project management team failed to achieve economic viability. There were also numerous disagreements between the research centers that were to move there regarding the distribution of spaces; a very valuable resource in research. According to sources close to PRBB Ciutadella, it was the current Minister of Economy and Finance, Alícia Romero, who politically decided to unblock the situation, promoting, with the support of the Presidency and Research and Universities, the proposal that the direction and execution of the project should fall to Camí.
In March 2025, they proposed to move the project forward, given that this scientist had already orchestrated the launch of PRBB twenty years ago and has extensive experience in the direction and management of large-scale scientific projects. “It hasn’t been easy, it’s been a challenge that we managed to solve in record time and only a year later we have started the construction of the building”, says Camí.
104 million euros
This Thursday, the President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, accompanied by the Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, and the Mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, is expected to visit the works. The PRRB Ciutadella has a total budget of 104 million euros, with 60 million coming from loans and 44 contributed by the Catalan Government. In November, the tender for the works of the facility was put out for 77.5 million euros. The remaining amount will be dedicated to furniture and equipment for the laboratories.
The new center will be the key piece of the scientific complex of the Mercat del Peix, which will have a total area of 46,000 m² and will house two more scientific infrastructures, the Center for Research and Innovation for Planetary Well-being of the UPF and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), a center of the UPF and the CSIC. "There will be a mix of disciplines, professional stages, nationalities, which will foster synergies and provide new opportunities to attract talent and resources. It will become a pioneering node of knowledge, research, and innovation in Europe," considers Camí.