Letter from the Director
Dear friends,
Thank you for browsing the 2017 ICIQ Scientific Report. I hope you enjoy it.
In this website you will find comprehensive information about ICIQ’s achievements during 2017. Among them, our success in securing European funding. Specifically, we obtained funding for three Innovative Training Networks (ITN) from the Marie Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme. We’ll be coordinating two of them, Noah (focused in the design of new methodologies for molecular encapsulation) and Viro-Flow (ICIQ’s first European Industrial Doctorate centered on the study new synthetic methodologies in flow chemistry). And we‘re part of another ITN, eSCALED, a European Joint Doctorate related to artificial photosynthesis. The overall funding awarded was €3.2M.
We’re also proud of the creation of ICIQ’s first spin-off company, Orchestra Scientific. Orchestra commercializes membrane technology to separate CO2 from biogas and capture it from industrial emissions and scientific instrumentation developed in Prof. José-Ramón Galán-Mascarós’ laboratory. This is a good example of extraordinary success in being in the position of transferring a technology to the industry.
With respect to research outputs, the institute continued being very active, publishing 173 high quality scientific papers during the year (86% in the first quartile and 61% decile journals) with an average impact factor of nearly 9. The institute reached Hirsch index 127 in December and topped international rankings measuring scientific excellence like excellencemapping.net and http://www.natureindex.com.
Finally, I would like to emphasize the importance of the culmination of ICIQ’s strategic plan for the 2017-2021 period. The plan is the result of the hard and many dedicated ICIQ researchers, technicians, management and administration staff members. Our goal is to make available to ICIQ’s staff the resources and tools necessary to carry out an inclusive science for a sustainable society. We want to implement the different actions to be taken in order to make ICIQ a talent platform, increase and consolidate our collaboration with industry and implement the RRI (Responsible Research and Innovation) principles in all ICIQ’s activities.
Best regards,
Miquel A. Pericàs