The Director of the ALBA Synchrotron, Caterina Biscari, guides the Catalan Minister Ramon Tremosa through the facility. On the Experimental Hall catwalk with views to the accelerator’s tunnel.
The Catalan minister Ramon Tremosa and Secretary Jordi Cabrafiga talk to some of the researchers of the ALBA Synchrotron about the new beamlines under construction. On the left, before the LOREA beamline, talking to Carles Colldelram (Head of the Transversal Section) and Joan Casas (Head of the Engineering Division). On the right, inside the XALOC beamline, talking to Judith Juanhuix (Head of the Biosciences Section).
Cerdanyola del Vallès, 16 November, 2020. This afternoon the Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge of the Catalan Government, Ramon Tremosa, has visited the ALBA Synchrotron to learn how the facility works, and the service it offers to the scientific community and society in general. He was accompanied by the Secretary of Universities and Research, Francesc Xavier Grau, the general secretary of Business and Knowledge, Jordi Cabrafiga, and the managing director of Research, Joan Gómez Pallarès.
After visiting some of the beamlines in which experiments of a wide range of scientific experiments take place, Minister Tremosa has attended a meeting with the directors of several Catalan research centers: the dean of the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Javier Lafuente; the director of EURECAT, Xavier López; of the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE), Ramon Miquel; of the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Xavier Obradors; of the Institut Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), Pablo Ordejón, of the Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), Joan Pino; of the Barcelona Institute of Science & Technology (BIST), Gabby Silberman; of the Parc de l’ALBA, Pere Solà; and of the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC), Núria Verdaguer and members from the management of the ALBA Synchrotron, which was the host.
The Catalan Minister informed that the Catalan Government is working on the creation of a public-private investment fund with the aim to promote the knowledge transfer of the Catalan research and improve its innovation index, which currently is below the European average. “We are working in a Government agreement that commits 5 million euros of next year’s budget and 5 more million from 2022”, said the Minister.
The announcement of this new resource in favor of innovation has been made during the visit to the ALBA Synchrotron, which is one of the great scientific and technological infrastructures of the Catalan research system. The Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge has highlighted that “precisely, this kind of infrastructures are essential in the consolidation and progress of the research in Catalonia, as they become economic engines”.
Left: Group photo of all the attendants. Right: Caterina Biscari during the meeting with the Catalan Minister of Business and Knowledge and the representatives of the research centers.
