Tuesday, 02 February 2021
New edition of the BIST Master of Multidisciplinary Research in Experimental Sciences
The Master is a joint effort of BIST and all the centers forming it to offer a training with a special focus on experimental skills.

Tuesday, 02 February 2021
The Master is a joint effort of BIST and all the centers forming it to offer a training with a special focus on experimental skills.
Tuesday, 19 January 2021
A review published today in IOP’s Journal of Physics: Materials draws an outline of the state of the art of quantum materials science and identifies the main challenges and opportunities in this emerging field of research. The paper is a work developed in collaboration by many international experts, including ICN2 researchers from the Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience group and the Physics and Engineering of Nanodevices group. ICN2 group leader Prof. Stephan Roche is co-corresponding author.
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
A study conducted by a team of researchers from the ICN2, in collaboration with colleagues from ALBA Synchrotron Light Source (Spain) and Diamond Light Source (United Kingdom), has found absence of magnetic proximity effects at the interface of heterojunctions made of a topological insulator and a magnetic insulator. These results are highly relevant to clear up the discrepancy between the experimental and theoretical analysis of these systems, as they were obtained using a direct experimental probe of locally induced magnetism, in contrast to previous experimental works.
Wednesday, 18 November 2020
The Minister of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Ramon Tremosa, visited ALBA Synchrotron on Monday 16 November to meet several directors of Catalan research centers, including Prof. Pablo Ordejón, ICN2 Director. He announced the creation of a public-private investment fund for promoting scientific knowledge and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Thursday, 22 October 2020
The 2nd annual Women in Renewable Energy workshop, hosted under the umbrella of the ICN2 Severo Ochoa workshops, was held online on the last 16 October. This event, dedicated to energy storage application and key trends in sustainability, was organized by Prof. Mónica Lira from the ICN2 and Prof. Zakya Kafafi from Lehigh University in Bethlehem (USA). The excellent scientific sessions were followed by a roundtable on the role of women in science, their challenges, permanent discrimination, and the possibility of transforming scientific research into a more inclusive environment.
Tuesday, 23 June 2020
A kick-off event finishing today summarises the next steps to be taken by the work package led by ICREA Prof. Stephan Roche into Core 3, the new phase of the Graphene Flagship designed to advance toward the commercialisation of graphene and layered materials. The event served to introduce new companies and new challenges that will boost graphene-enabled spintronic technologies to higher technology readiness levels.
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
A project aiming at developing large-scale integrable devices for application in quantum computing, proposed by ICREA Prof. Sergio Valenzuela and MIT Prof. William Oliver, will be funded through the MIT-Spain “la Caixa” Foundation Seed Fund Programme. The 12 selected projects have been announced on April 20.
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Watch it on YouTube! Prof. Peter Bøggild, from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), offered on April 24 a webinar entitled “Graphene on the edge: disorder, chemistry and band engineering in vdW heterostructures”. It was hosted by ICREA Prof. Aitor Mugarza, Group Leader of the ICN2 Atomic Manipulation and Spectrosocpy Group.
Tuesday, 28 April 2020
Now available on YouTube! The ICN2 Group led by Prof. Mónica Lira Cantu hosted on 17 April 2020 a webinar to discuss about good practices on conducting and reporting stability studies specifically tailored for perovskite solar cells. The event was co-hosted by Prof. Eugene A. Katz, from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Its dynamic format included short presentations by international young experts and was organised by Dr Haibing Xie (ICN2) and Dr Mark Khenkin (HZB).
Monday, 27 April 2020
In an opinion article published today by Nature Nanotechnology, Prof. Kostas Kostarelos shares his views on what may be going wrong in the fight against COVID-19 and how the nanoscience community could contribute. He suggests applying the three key principles in managing an individual cancer patient: early detection, monitoring and targeting. Prof. Kostas Kostarelos recently became Senior Group Leader at the ICN2 after a long-standing collaboration that is now reinforced through the ICN2 Severo Ochoa talent attraction strategy. He will continue directing the Nanomedicine Lab at the University of Manchester, while also leading the new ICN2 Nanomedicine Group.
Thursday, 09 April 2020
The ALBA Synchrotron will host two new major experimental facilities, one dedicated to materials science, valued at 4.1 million euros and led by the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), and another meant for molecular biology, valued at 1.7 million euros and headed by the Institute of Molecular Biology of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC). The new platform also counts with the participation of BIST, CSIC, IRB Barcelona, UAB, ICMAB-CSIC and CRG. The provisional agreement for co-financing through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) these two scientific infrastructures has been announced today.
Tuesday, 07 April 2020
Join this online conference about nanotech-based diagnostics in emergency situations. The event, with Phantoms Foundation and ICN2 researchers leading the organisation committee, will be held on 6 May. Register before 30 April to get an early bird discount.
Monday, 06 April 2020
In the edition of 4 April of the “Informe Semanal”, weekly in-depth news show of the RTVE, Prof. Laura Lechuga presented CoNVaT, the European funded project that she leads, which aims at the development of a fast, cheap and handy test device for the diagnosis of the COVID-19.
Thursday, 02 April 2020
Paperdrop Diagnostics is the ICN2 and ICREA spin-off devoted to the development of rapid diagnostic tests based on paper microfluidics. La Vanguardia remarks their new test for ischemic stroke, based on the evaluation of microRNA, and their efforts to produce a Covid-19 test from this technology.
Thursday, 02 April 2020
The EU project CoNVaT wants to develop a biosensor device to detect the Covid-19 disease. Prof. Laura Lechuga and Dr Maria Soler, from the Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, explain the project in a way that is accessible to all.
Wednesday, 01 April 2020
The ICN2 Nanobiosensors and Bioanalytical Applications Group, led by Prof. Laura Lechuga, coordinates a European project with a budget over 2 million euros. They have become an international reference in COVID-19 diagnostics and have prepared a report for the Ministry of Science and Innovation analysing the characteristics, advantages and limitations of current detection systems for diagnosing COVID-19.
Tuesday, 31 March 2020
ICREA Prof. Dr Clivia M. Sotomayor Torres, leader of the ICN2 Phononic and Photonic Nanostructures Group, has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to lead a five-year project aiming at developing a disruptive technology based on phononic interconnects to reduce energy consumption of electronic circuits.
Saturday, 21 March 2020
The ICN2 research groups responded massively to the call coordinated by our Health and Safety Area. While keeping a minimal stock to protect the researchers still working at the ICN2, all the groups decided to empty their stored stock of gloves, protective glasses, masks and alcohol.
Tuesday, 17 March 2020
Since last week the ICN2 has adapted its activity level to the quickly evolving context caused by the COVID-19 disease spread. As per today, only very few ICN2 members are allowed to enter the ICN2 facilities, including the research Group led by Prof. Laura Lechuga who is leading the CONVAT project to design a tool to diagnose COVID-19. Most of the personnel will remain active working, contributing to fight this spreading disease by following the indications published by authorities as well as through research.
Wednesday, 11 March 2020
On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, on March 9 the ICN2 hosted an event to discuss about gender balance in research and present the Equal Opportunities and Diversity Management Plan II, which was launched in 2019 and will extend up to 2022.