Tuesday, 05 April 2022
2021 BIST Ignite Awards Ceremony: both winning projects are co-led by ICN2 researchers
The ceremony, chaired by BIST Director General Dr Gabby Silberman, was a celebration for the teams that coordinate the winning projects, MAKI and QEE2DUP, and the five projects selected in the first phase of the 5th edition of the BIST Ignite Programme. The event also included a fascinating talk by Prof. Ralf Metzler (University of Potsdam, Germany).
On April 5, 2022, the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) held the 2021 BIST Ignite Awards Ceremony at La Pedrera Auditorium in Barcelona, in which the two winning teams were awarded, and the five projects funded in the first phase of the 5th edition of the BIST Ignite Programme were presented.
The awarded projects are MAKI, led by Dr Gemma Aragay (ICIQ) and Dr Ruslán Álvarez (postdoctoral researcher in the ICN2 Nanobioelectronics and Biosensors Group), and QEE2DUP, led by Dr Roshan Krishna Kumar (ICFO) and Dr José Ramon Durán (postdoctoral researcher in the ICN2 Atomic Manipulation and Spectroscopy Group). The objective of MAKI is to develop a real-time sensing device capable of detecting in urine the presence of two biomarkers relevant for the monitoring of acute kidney injury (AKI), while QEE2DUP aims to design a new material, based on atomically precise graphene nanostructures, for enhanced communications security and increased quantum computing capability. Learn more about the Award and the winning projects here.
After the welcome by Ms. Marta Lacambra, Director General of Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, and an introduction by Dr Gabby Silberman, Director General of BIST, the ceremony started with the announcement of the five projects —Poly-STOP, EXPLODE-TNBC, SENESGOLD, ASITOC, and TeraFox— that received a “Seed Grant” to start their collaborative activity. Then, the leaders of the two winning projects received the BIST Ignite Award from the hands of ICREA Prof. Maria Garcia-Parajo (ICFO) and ICREA Prof. Jordi Arbiol (ICN2), who are both members of the BIST Research Committee. Each team had the possibility to give a presentation about their project.
Following, ICREA Prof. Maciej Lewenstein (ICFO) introduced the invited speaker, Prof. Ralf Metzler, Chair for Theoretical Physics at the Institute for Physics and Astronomy of the University of Potsdam (Germany), who gave a seminar on “What Einstein did not know: brownian motion then and now”.
The event closed with the final remarks by Ms. Gemma Geis, Minister of Research and Universities of the Generalitat de Catalunya (the Government of Catalonia) and a networking cocktail party.
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About the BIST Ignite Programme
The BIST Ignite programme is an initiative that was launched in 2016 by the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) to promote multidisciplinary research through collaborations between groups from different BIST centres.
Every year a competitive call for BIST Ignite project proposals is launched and five are selected to be granted funding to jumpstart their research collaboration. At the end of the first year of funding, only two out of those five projects receive additional funding and a BIST Ignite Award. They are chosen on the base of the results obtained in the first phase, the project’s potential for impact, and the addition of new collaborators from within and outside BIST.