The Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (DCEXS) at UPF is one of six research units in Spain, four of them in Catalonia, to have obtained the new "Maria de Maeztu" distinction, granted by the Secretary of State for R&D within the framework of its Centres of Excellence programme. With this recognition, the DCEXS, along with another five units distinguished, will receive funding of 500,000 euros each year for four years.

The new modality of "Maria de Maeztu" distinctions recognizes excellence in smaller research organizational structures than centres, located mainly at universities, and complements the "Severo Ochoa" distinctions aimed at research centres included in the same call, endowed with a total of 20 million euros.

Arcadi Navarro, director of the DCEXS, said that "as members of Pompeu Fabra University, we are especially pleased that all of the effort made to demonstrate that a university department can perform first class research has been acknowledged. With the right governance structures and procurement procedures and by working together we can go a long way".

The requirements, standards of exigency, criteria and procedures for evaluation and selection related to scientific excellence that have been taken into consideration do not establish any differences between centres and units: both structures have been selected for their scientific results and their strategic programmes after rigorous assessment involving 115 renowned international scientists.

According to the Secretary of State for R&D, pertaining to the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences at UPF is considered a leading unit in biomedical research in Europe. It has a significant portfolio of patents, start-ups and spin-offs, with an extensive list of global partnerships and an internationally renowned doctoral programme in Biomedicine.

Catalonia receives five of the eight awards

Aside from the DCEXS, four Catalan centres and units have been recognized. The "Maria de Maeztu" distinction has been awarded to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona, ​​the Barcelona Graduate School of Mathematics of the Research Consortium for Mathematics, and the Structural Biology Unit of the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (CSIC). Moreover, the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia has achieved the "Severo Ochoa" distinction (endowed with a million euros a year for four years).

In this regard, Arcadi Navarro emphasized that "as citizens we can feel proud that the Catalan research system has enjoyed overwhelming and well deserved success at this call".

The other centres and units awarded the "Maria de Maeztu" are the Condensed Matter Physics Center of the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Department of Economics at Carlos III University of Madrid, while the Institute Corpuscular Physics, a mixed CSIC and University of Valencia centre, has been awarded the "Severo Ochoa".

The "Severo Ochoa" distinctions add to the eighteen centres of excellence that have already achieved this accreditation in previous years, including the CRG and the Barcelona GSE, of the UPF Group.

The centres and units accredited at this announcement stand out both for the international visibility of their scientific contributions and their innovative capacity and their close relationship with the business sector, besides being centres of reference worldwide capable of attracting international talent.