2019 was a year of transition for the management of IMIM. Dr. Joaquim Bellmunt left the position of Director in August, after almost three years, and in early October, Dr. Jordi Martínez temporarily took on the functions of director of the institute until Dr. Joaquin Arribas joined in January 2020.

In accordance with the reaccreditation of IMIM as a Healthcare Research Institute at the end of 2018, the Secretary General for Scientific Coordination of the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities also approved changes in the composition of the institute. Thus, in 2019, the foundation BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Center was integrated in the institute and The Genome Regulation Centre (CRG), the Barcelona Global Health Institute (ISGlobal), and the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park Consortium (PRBB), signatories of the Institute’s founding agreement, left the institute.

IMIM joined the Catalonia Research Portal (PRC), a portal of the Directorate General for Research of the Catalan government’s Universities and Research Secretariat, which collects, exhibits and disseminates the results of the research produced by Catalan universities and research centers, thus facilitating open access to scientific production.

This year saw a greater number of international and EU competitive projects, which has led to a general increase in the institution’s income, among other factors. At the national level, there was a 48% success rate in projects of the Carlos III Institute of Health, a higher percentage than the mean for Spain, which stands at 35%. Also of note was the increase in clinical trials and services contracted for an overall amount of more than 9 million euros.

In terms of ISCIII personal grants, the results for 2019 were exceptional: 3 intensifications, 4 post-residency Río Hortega grants, 3 Sara Borrell post-doctoral grants, 5 Pre-doctoral Training Grants in health research (PFIS), 2 Miguel Servet researcher contracts and 2 Juan Rodés Grants.

Activity on transfer of results has continued to increase, with 5 European patents submitted, of which 3 are jointly owned with other centers.

A total of 919 scientific publications were produced in 2019, of which 748 are original articles and reviews with an impact factor. The “IMIM Open Access Policy” was also approved this year with the aim of promoting the dissemination of scientific production under open access and in accordance with current national and international law. Open access aims to achieve permanent, free and unrestricted access to scientific and academic content with the aim of encouraging visibility, dissemination and socialization of knowledge.

The 2018-2021 2nd Equal Opportunities Plan for men and women was approved by the Management Commission and the Board of Governors of the IMIM Foundation in June 2019 and was drafted and agreed by an equality commission made up of equal numbers of male and female representatives of the employees and of the institution. Furthermore, IMIM has signed the letter of commitment to equality in medical research in Catalonia, in the framework of the first Gender in Health Sciences Summit, organized by the Catalan Health Care Quality and Evaluation Agency (AQuAS) and the Department of Health of the Catalan Autonomous Government, in collaboration with the Foundation “la Caixa” with the aim of ending gender inequality in the research system in Catalonia.

In 2019, IMIM was mentioned in the media in a total of 2310 news items. The number of impacts was 20% higher than the previous year. Of note was the success of the press release “80% of the adult population in Spain will present obesity or be overweight by the year 2030”, with 411 mentions in the press. From July to November 2019, the Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica metro held the exhibition “Leonardo da Vinci at the PRBB”, organized jointly by all the PRBB centers. The aim of the exhibition was to provide a graphic vision of human biology while commemorating the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). The leitmotiv of the exhibit, “from macro to micro”, followed the profile of the research carried out in the PRBB centers, where the different aspects of biomedicine are studied in all areas and at all levels.