The Governing Board of the Generalitat (Catalan Government) has today approved the merger between the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and the Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology (CREAL). The governance agreement adopted this morning gives the go-ahead to a merger process that was approved last April by the trustees of both centres. The merger, which will come into effect on 30 June, ends a joint process that started more than three years ago, and makes ISGlobal a leading international centre of research and knowledge transfer in Global Health.    

The resulting ISGlobal, with 30 research groups and a total staff of 376, positions Barcelona as a leading hub in global health research on infectious and non-communicable diseases, and environmental factors. Antoni Plasència will be the general manager of the new ISGlobal, and Josep Maria Antó, professor of Medicine at the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences at UPF, will be the scientific coordinator.   

“The integration of CREAL into ISGlobal reflects a firm commitment towards the strengthening of our scientific research and translational capacities whereby our institute will become one of the leading international global health centres”, explains Antoni Plasència. 

 “With this merger, ISGlobal will become one of the pioneering centres bringing together research on transmissible diseases with research on chronic diseases and their environmental determinants. We expect to generate state-of-the-art scientific contributions and translate them into real solutions that improve health and quality of life worldwide”, affirms Josep Maria Antó.

As was the case for the creation of ISGlobal in 2010, the support of ”la Caixa” Foundation has been crucial for this new phase. CREAL’s integration has also led to the incorporation of Pompeu Fabra University and the Mar Health Park to the other entities that constitute the governing body of ISGlobal: University of Barcelona, Hospital Clínic, the Catalan Government, Barcelona City Council, the Spanish Government, and the Areces Foundation.   

Based on a model that supports knowledge exchange as a tool for cooperation, ISGlobal’s mission is to improve global health and promote health equity through excellence in research and the transfer and application of knowledge.

All images belong to ISGlobal.