The PRBB sets sail

The new Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) was officially opened on 15 May. It took five years of building works and a global investment of some 110 million euros to be able to contemplate the final appearance of this unique 55,000 square metre building erected on nine floors. The country’s main authorities and close to nine hundred guests attended the opening ceremony of the new science facility.

The PRBB is a joint initiative of the Catalan Government, Barcelona City Council and Pompeu Fabra University and brings together five independent research institutions and centres, including UPF’s Department of Experimental and Health Sciences-, all dedicated to different aspects of biomedicine. This project stands especially for the scientific quality and level of the nearly one thousand scientific researchers from around the world who, divided into eighty multidisciplinary research groups, work together and share a unique environment.

The PRBB, whose elliptical shape is its trademark, reminiscent of an upside-down vessel hull- and whose façade is covered cedar wood, stands right in front of the promenade, near the Mar Hospital and the UPF Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. The new building, designed by architects Manel Brullet and Albert de Pineda, is an ideal setting to host a campus intensively producing knowledge in the field of biomedicine and health sciences, which is destined to become a benchmark in translational biomedical research in southern Europe.

y: six out of every ten students graduated within the period foreseen. To help new graduates in their search for employment, a book of curricula was published containing al of their academic records including both a description of the degree course they completed as well as their knowledge of languages and computing, their work experience and their professional goals.

Photo: The PRBB on the opening day.