BIST Forum 2026: ICN2’s BREATH CO2 Project Receives an Ignite Award

by Chema Arcos

The BIST Forum 2026 provided an opportunity to strengthen collaboration within the BIST community and celebrate scientific excellence. During the event, the BIST Ignite programme recognised several multidisciplinary initiatives, including the BREATH-CO2 project led by Dr Alba Garzón in collaboration with ICIQ and ICFO.

Last week, the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) held a new edition of the BIST Forum at CosmoCaixa in Barcelona. The event brought together researchers and representatives from the seven centres that make up the BIST community (ICN2, ICFO, IFAE, CRG, IRB Barcelona, IBEC and ICIQ), as well as institutional representatives. Notable attendees included the Catalan Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat; the Spanish Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu; and the President of the European Investment Bank, Nadia Calviño.

The programme featured a series of presentations and roundtable discussions exploring the key role that frontier research plays in shaping future industries and strengthening Europe’s innovation ecosystem. ICN2 took part in two sessions:

Dr José Hugo García (Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience Group) presented his team’s work and their new spin-off, APEIRON Intelligence, during the “BIST Community Impact Highlights”
Carolina Aguilar, CEO of the ICN2 spin off INBRAIN Neuroelectronics, joined a roundtable discussion focused on the conditions needed for frontier research to translate into the creation of new industries.

The Forum also addressed the gender gap that persists in leadership positions in STEM disciplines. A roundtable discussion explored the structural factors behind these statistics. In this context, BIST showcased its 'To the Mothers of Science' programme, which provides one-year fellowships and leadership coaching to female scientists. Among this year’s awardees was Dr Maria Soler, from the ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group.

The BIST Ignite Programme

The event included the announcement of the latest projects selected within the BIST Ignite Programme, an initiative established in 2016 to promote multidisciplinary collaborations between research groups from different BIST centres. A total of €1,310,000 has been granted since then, with more than 200 researchers already involved.

One of the newly funded projects is BREATH-CO2, which is led by Dr. Alba Garzón (ICN2 Advanced Electron Nanoscopy Group), Dr Felipe Andrés Garcés (ICIQ), and Dr Viktoria Golovanova (ICFO). Their initiative aims to develop and characterise new materials for CO₂ electrocatalysers, thereby advancing carbon-mitigation technologies.

The BIST Ignite programme will also fund several early-stage projects involving ICN2 researchers. They include MITEST (Mitochondrial Disease Evaluation Through Point-of-Care Serological Testing), which involves Dr Andrew Piper, Dr Nerea de Mariscal and Duygu Beduk, and RADIANT (Raman-Accelerated Deep-Learning Imaging and Nanoscale Thermometry), which involves Dr Marianna Sledzinska, Prof. Javier Rodríguez-Viejo and Dr Tim Swodoba.

Initiatives such as the BIST Forum and the Ignite programme enable ICN2 and the wider BIST community to promote interdisciplinary research, technological innovation and scientific excellence.