The extraordinary league that attracts the world's best scientists to Catalonia

BarcelonaIt's a little after 6:30 in the morning. The American paleoanthropologist Ashley Hammond She woke up a while ago, breastfeeding her two-month-old son. She has everything planned to catch the train in Terrassa, where she has lived since autumn, and arrive in the center of Barcelona on time. Today, Hammond is attending a very special celebration: the 25th anniversary of ICREA, Catalonia's 100% public strategy to attract and retain top scientific talent. This researcher is one of the latest to join this league of excellence, a pioneering initiative worldwide that has proven highly successful for the country's research system.

The idea originated in 2000. Initially, the Catalan government created annual awards to recognize the twenty best university researchers with the aim of identifying and fostering talent. Behind it all was the then Minister of Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell, largely responsible for the success of the current Catalan research system. The following year, he spearheaded the creation of a foundation, fully funded by the Generalitat (Catalan government), with the same objective—to identify, attract, and retain top talent—but focused on scientists. In parallel, he also initiated the establishment of the CECRA research centers of excellence (such as the Institute of Photonic Sciences and the Centre for Genomic Regulation), modeled after leading European institutions like the German Max Planck Institute. "The commitment was clear: a system based solely on merit and on leadership and scientific excellence," summarizes the current director of ICREA, mathematician Antonio Huerta. To make this possible, a foundation was established, the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 100% funded by the Generalitat (Government of Catalonia), which, as Huerta points out, "has been respected by all governments and has survived many kinds of crises over the years." ICREA is a science that encompasses all areas of knowledge, from philosophy and linguistics to mathematics, bioinformatics, economics, and paleoanthropology. It rests on two fundamental pillars: firstly, it is run by academics for academics; and secondly, it has organizational independence and functional autonomy. It has also inspired at least two other initiatives: Ikerbasque in the Basque Country and the European Research Area Chair (ERA) at the European level. The impact of ICREA

To obtain an ICREA position, a scientist, Catalan or foreign, must submit their application through a Catalan institution that wishes to host them. An independent, international committee of experts evaluates the applications based on merit. Selected scientists are hired permanently, with a competitive salary (averaging €80,000 per year), and are evaluated every five years to determine their performance. As they advance, they receive salary increases and can reach €120,000.

Currently, there are 305 ICREA researchers (76% men and 24% women), representing 1% of the Catalan scientific community. Nearly four out of ten obtained their positions before the age of 40. This year's budget is 40 million euros, and "each ICREA research center generates, on average, five times more than the investment made by the Generalitat," emphasizes Huerta, who points out that "each ICREA center directly generates around seven highly skilled jobs." The ARA (Catalan Academy of Sciences) has selected five current researchers whom the ICREA program has helped retain. They are part of the extraordinary league of scientists in Catalonia. "I want to understand how the first humans moved."

Ashley Hammond

Paleoanthropologist at the Catalan Institute of Paleontology Miquel Crusafont (ICP) 2025

I am a paleoanthropologist and, arguably, one of the world's leading experts on the evolution of the human pelvis. Along with the skull, it is the part of the body that has undergone the most changes in human history, due to the need to begin walking upright and the need to infant infants with very large brains. These changes are linked to physiology, the intestines, diet, and the shape of the torso; therefore, this part of the lower trunk offers a wealth of information for understanding what happened in human evolution.

The question I would like to answer with my research is what type of locomotion or movement the first individuals of our lineage had. How did the common ancestor of humans and our evolutionary relatives move? Did they already walk on all fours, supporting themselves on their knuckles, as chimpanzees or gorillas do, or did they still move from branch to branch?

To try to answer that, I work with the fossil record of apes and hominids, and I go on expeditions to sites in Africa, especially in Kenya. I also apply advanced 3D techniques to study hip joint mobility and the evolution of motor skills in great apes. Until last October, I worked at the American Museum of Natural History in New York [yes, the one that appears in so many movies!], where I was the curator and professor in the anthropology division. And now I'll be working as a principal investigator in the hominid origins research group at the ICP, where I've just joined as an ICREA researcher.

My decision to come to Catalonia is related to the fact that my husband, who is also a scientist, is Catalan and wanted to return home. It's true that the decision was difficult, because in the United States much more funding is allocated to research, both public and private, because we have a different culture of philanthropy. Furthermore, salaries are higher. That's why we agreed that we would only leave New York for Barcelona if we secured a prestigious, research-focused position with funding. And this meant obtaining a European Research Council (ERC) grant, one of the prestigious and competitive ERC grants; or an ICREA position; or a combination of both. ICREA is certainly one of the three most top from all over Europe. That's why, when they told me I'd been selected, it was a dream come true. Added to that is the fact that the quality of life in Catalonia is very high and there are policies in place to support families. And that, for me, for us, who have just had a second child, is also very important.

"Every day I look at the photo of the children with Myhre, a rare disease, to remind myself of the importance of our research."

María Macías

Chemistry at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)

Every day I look at a photo I keep in my office of children in Spain with Myhre syndrome. It's a very serious, extremely rare disease for which there is no care, leading to fatal complications such as cardiovascular failure and fibrosis, as well as intellectual disability. I look at it because it keeps me grounded and reminds me how important what we do is to try to find a solution, even a partial one, that allows us to buy time while others find definitive treatment.

This disease is caused by five variants in the gene that codes for an SMAD protein. These proteins play a crucial role in the development and proper functioning of cells and organs. When they are altered, they can cause tumors and diseases like Myhre syndrome. I have been studying SMAD proteins with Joan Massagué [scientific director of the Sloan Kettering Institute in New York] for at least 25 years, since I returned to Spain to join the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) as an ICREA researcher. I can proudly say that I'm from the first ICREA cohort!

At the time, I was a tenured scientist at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and I had a small research group. I was doing very well and was considering applying for German citizenship. But at a structural biology conference in the US, some researchers from Barcelona explained to me that this talent recruitment and retention initiative was being launched, and I became curious because I felt I wanted to give back to the system some of what it had invested in our training.

So I applied in the first call for applications. I remember being interviewed by a committee of about fourteen people, including Joan Massagué, who selected me to go to IRB Barcelona.

I thought ICREA's idea was fantastic: investing in talented people who are capable of finding funding, generating contracts and wealth associated with research, and advancing knowledge. That's how a country's productivity is built.

I remain passionate about trying to understand what protein structures can tell us, whether we can better understand their mechanisms of action or how they work, and what impact disease-related mutations have. The ultimate goal is to pave the way for designing new drugs or finding solutions.

"I'm curious to know how the swine fever virus arrived if it didn't come from the IRTA-CReSA laboratory."

Toni Gabaldón

Bioinformatics specialist at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and IRB Barcelona

I'm passionate about microorganisms. How can something so small have such a large impact and end up causing us illness or a problem? We're studying, for example, how changes in the gut microbiota—the community made up of trillions of bacteria, fungi, yeasts, and viruses—are associated with colorectal cancer. Or how oral bacteria are involved in hypertension. In fact, we have a project funded by La Marató to analyze precisely this.

I've always worked with microorganisms and evolution, which is the most unifying law in biology and allows us to explain both the origin and the diversity of organisms that exist, even the interactions between them. And I've been doing this as an ICREA researcher since 2013. First at the Centre for Genomic Regulation and, for the last few years, leading the comparative genomics group, affiliated with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona).

Recently, precisely because of my research group's experience in emerging pathogens and comparative genomics, the Catalan Ministry of Agriculture asked us for help clarifying the origin of the swine fever outbreak we had in Catalonia. The question we tried to answer was whether the swine fever virus had emerged from the strains they had in the IRTA-CReSA laboratories during a specific time period. The answer we got was no. Paradoxically, it's the smallest genome we've worked with [the VPPA genome], and yet it's the one that has had the greatest impact. I'm very curious to know now, if it didn't come from the lab, how it could have appeared there.

Being ICREA goes far beyond the salary. It's being part of a community that ensures you feel comfortable and find your place to develop your research at the highest level. They also offer us training, such as leadership courses, and put us in touch with other top-level researchers, which can lead to collaborations. They also demand a lot from us: we must pass highly competitive external evaluations every five years to renew our positions. Obtaining ICREA accreditation was my passport to staying in Catalonia to do research. Otherwise, I would have had to leave.

"I research how to improve communication methods to contribute to the progress of society."

Antonio Acín

Theoretical physicist at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Castelldefels

Whenever I speak with my colleagues around the world, I tell them that I have the best research position I can have in Spain, which is the ICREA position. The recognition I have, both academic and social, combined with feeling valued and having the trust placed in me, is the best thing you can have as a scientist.

I lead the Quantum Information Theory Group at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), located in Castelldefels. I arrived at this center in 2003 from the University of Geneva, in Switzerland. Before that, I had earned degrees in telecommunications and physics, and a PhD in theoretical physics, inspired by a course taught by two leading physicists in quantum mechanics, Anna Sanpera and Ignacio Cirac.

For a theoretical physicist like myself, the decision to return to Catalonia or Spain is perhaps somewhat simpler than for researchers in other fields, because we don't require as much funding for research. When I decided to return to Barcelona, ​​the ICFO project was promising but very much in its infancy, and it was necessary to make a significant investment. Although I came with a Ramón y Cajal state grant, I soon applied for the ICREA position, which already had prestige at that time and seemed a much more attractive option.

My academic career focuses on one of the areas with the greatest future potential in contemporary physics: quantum computing. I am an expert in quantum information theory and I research new ways of processing information, as well as developing more powerful computers and more secure encryption protocols. My research is fundamental; I generate knowledge so that experimental physicists can then put it into practice. I am very interested in solving these intellectually stimulating problems, which can contribute to the progress of society. Because if we have better methods of communication, we will contribute to the progress of society.

"I study how stars like the Sun are born and how the seeds of planets form."

Anaëlle Maury

Astrophysics at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC)

You, me, we are all, literally, stardust. The carbon that humans, plants, and all other animals are made of—everything around us—comes from cosmic dust, tiny grains of dust that clump together to form planets. My research focuses precisely on trying to understand how stars like our Sun are born, and the physics that allows these minuscule grains of interstellar dust to coagulate and evolve into planetary seeds, and then planets around these stars. I am interested in the role that magnetic fields play in this fascinating process.

I have always looked at the sky. I grew up in a small village of twenty inhabitants in the French Pre-Pyrenees, very close to the emblematic Canigou, Prunet, and Belpuig, in Northern Catalonia. My nearest neighbor was 6 km away! My parents let me roam freely, and I had access to an incredible starry sky every night. That's why I'm dedicated to astronomy. And, in part, my having swapped Paris for Barcelona has to do with my nostalgia for that country and its natural landscape.

I was very happy in the French capital; I'd been there for 10 years, researching magnetic fields during the formation of planetary systems, a topic in which, at the time, there were few experts. I was fortunate enough to start collaborating with someone based here at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-ICSIC), who told me about ICREA. To be honest, I had never considered working within the Spanish research system because I wanted a competitive and dynamic environment. But ICREA changed my perspective, and I applied. I was surprised to get accepted on my first try.

The research environment in Catalonia in the field of astrophysics is excellent; there are outstanding researchers. Now I'm building my team and working on my PEBBLES project, for which I received an ERC Advanced Grant. I speak Spanish, which I learned on the street during my trips to Chile for the astronomical observatory, and now I'm going to start learning Catalan. I understand it a little because I'm from Northern Catalonia and I felt it, although the pronunciation here is more difficult for me. The hardest part about moving from Paris to Barcelona has been finding an apartment. I refused to pay 3,000 euros for 60 square meters.².