BIST IGNITE Call Awardees
ICFO participates in three multidisciplinary research projects awarded second round funding in this BIST call
The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), of which ICFO is one of seven members, launched the BIST Ignite Program to promote the initiation of new collaborations among the BIST researchers, facilitating the exchange of knowledge among different scientific fields and exploring new approaches to address complex questions. The projects that aspire to this grant are to be aimed at exploring new questions and technological challenges through novel multidisciplinary approaches, exchanging knowledge across disciplines, exposing researchers to multidisciplinary environments, and providing new insights to push the collaboration further.
In April 2018, BIST announced the winners of the second edition of this call, awarded funding to five projects from within the BIST Community. All five of these projects were recognized for their multidisciplinarity and high level of scientific excellence. The projects had eight months to develop their projects, at which point they were eligible to apply for the second phase of funding for these projects.
Three outstanding multidisciplinary projects from this group have now been awarded grants to continue the work they began developing through the program’s first phase. All of the winners of this second phase contribute significantly to the scientific landscape: A project that aims to discover previously unknown parts of the cell (“PHASE-CHROM“), a project to measure the quantum effects of proteins in photosynthetic bacteria and plants (“Q-SPET“), and a project aiming to develop a new cell culture method for personalised medicine applications (“ENGUT“).
The winners are:
Q-SPET (“Quantum-controlled Single Protein Electron Transport”), led by Pau Gorostiza of IBEC, Niek F. van Hulst of ICFO, and Elisabet Romero of ICIQ.
PHASE-CHROM (“Role of phase separation in gene regulation and chromatin architecture”), led by Juan Andrés Torreño Piña of ICFO, Catalina Romero of CRG, and Xavier Salvatella of IRB Barcelona.
ENGUT (“Engineered models of intestinal epithelial tissue: assessing in vivo-like functional properties”), led by Elena Martínez of IBEC, Emilio J. Gualda of ICFO, and Eduard Battle of IRB Barcelona.
Congratulations are in order for all three winners of the second phase of the 2017 BIST Ignite Program. We are eager to follow the progress of these projects!
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