The funding is: 365,000 euros for the project ‘Science, Technology and Society’ by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), 140,000 euros for the activity plan by the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), and 99,000 euros for the programme by the Fundació Bioregió de Catalunya (BIOCAT). In parallel, a subsidy of 27,000 euros has also been agreed for the Fundació BetaBrain, part of the Fundació Pasqual Maragall, completing the 150,000 euros that the City Council is giving to the organisation during the current financial year.

The four subsidies align with the ‘Strategic Science and Innovation Plan 2023-2027’, which aims to consolidate the city as an attractive and enriching environment for science and innovation. The idea is to drive research and knowledge transfer for more competitive companies and better wages for their workers.

Projects in detail

The 365,000 euros for BSC-CNS comes from the tourist tax and will cover 48% of an AI project. As for the ICFO, the subsidy is for the programme to drive photonic medicine, a key technology for creating diagnostic applications and non-invasive treatment, as well as for innovation in health and sustainability.

With the BIOCAT subsidy, the City Council will fund the organisation’s work with Emergent Advanced Therapies, Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence, helping to consolidate the city as an international leader in these fields.

At the Fundació BetaBrain (Fundació Pasqual Maragall) the City Council will be funding 50% of the ALFAcognició programme, which drives research in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s. The goal is to identify, characterise and monitor subjective or light cognitive decline to move forward in effective therapies that act when neuronal damage can still be reversed.