The Bioinformatics Barcelona (BIB) Association has been created with 25 member organizations from universities, research centres, hospital research institutes, major scientific facilities, pharmaceutical, technology and bioinformatics companies, and other institutions. At the same time, a further 23 entities have expressed an interest and are currently being added. The first governing board includes Ana Ripoll (UAB) as chairwoman; Department of Experimental and Health Sciences (UPF) director, Arcadi Navarro, as secretary, and Alfons Nonell (Mind the Byte) as treasurer.

Bioinformatics is a research area where computational sciences and information technologies are used to process biological data. This multidisciplinary activity expands the potential for knowledge creation and technology transfer. Bioinformatics is used in all areas of life sciences and it has a profound impact on a wide range of fields, including health, the food industry and biotechnology in general.

Over the last few years it has become a strategic science to give sense to the vast amount of data (big data) that keeps growing exponentially. It is in this sense that the current challenge facing bioscientists is to be able to manage and exploit this avalanche of information and transform it into new knowledge with a socioeconomic impact. All this, in the field of biomedicine, will allow, for example, improving the understanding of the onset and progression of diseases, and to move towards personalized medicine.

The BIB seeks to act as a catalyst for initiatives in advanced research and the transfer of knowledge and technology between research groups, hospitals and the biotech, pharmaceutical and agrifood business sector, as well as in the development of training programmes that allow to the incorporation of specialized talent and to respond to the demand of different profiles of bioinformatics.

In order to achieve these aims, the association will cooperate with all stakeholders and actors of the quadruple helix (administration, universities and knowledge institutions, enterprise and civil society) to generate initiatives and collaborative dynamics that enable Barcelona and Catalonia to become a leading science cluster in southern Europe and a strategic node, thanks to a highly competitive ecosystem and a privileged geographical location open to the world.

The first initiative to already have emerged from the BIB is the design of pioneer training programmes throughout the state. On one hand, it has defined the studies of two years of vocational training in informatics oriented to bioinformatics whose classes will start next academic year, 2015-16. In addition, it has defined the study programme of what will be the first three-year inter-university bioinformat ics degree in the Catalan University System, which is scheduled to begin during the 2016-17 academic year. Bioinformatics Barcelona also has the support of the Government of Catalonia and Obra Social "la Caixa".