The Barcelona Science Park has announced the 8th grant call for the « Tutoring for Secondary School Students» project, aimed at researchers who wish to tutor secondary school students during their research projects. The initiative is included within the program «Research in Society», developed by the PCB with the support of the Obra Social of CatalunyaCaixa. Application deadline is May 4.
Next Tuesday, 5 April, at 12 h, the 9th edition of the “Live Research” Far will be opened at La Pedrera (Passeig de Gràcia, 92). The fair is organized by the Barcelona Science Park with the support of the Social Work Division of Caixa de Catalunya. The initiative will serve as a showcase of some of the projects that principal researchers from different research centers and institutes in Barcelona are currently undertaking and it is intended to bring research closer to all citizens and to promote scientific vocations among young adults. To achieve this goal, each stand will formulate an enigma which attendees will have to solve by experimenting and using the laboratory tools that scientists will bring to the Fair during the exhibit at La Pedrera. The display will be open to the public on the 5, 6 and 7 April, from 10h to 14h and 16h to 20h. Access to the fair is free, but a reservation is recommended for groups larger than 10 people.
The Office of International Research Projects (OPIR), a mixed unit of the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBG)–located at the Barcelona Science Park- and the University of Barcelona (UB), has managed the project titled “Assets and Regional Economic Growth”,IAREG), which analyses the function of intangible assets –such as human capital, mobility of researchers and business initative- in the generation of innovation and economic growth. The results of this project have been presented this month and, amongst other conclusions, the importance of stimulating academic commercialisation efforts is underscored.
Tomorrow, June 18, the University of Barcelona (UB) will present its Museu Virtual at the University of Uppsala (Sweden) within the framework of the XI Universeum Network Meeting, which is titled “University Heritage: Present and Future” this year. The UB’s Virtual Museum is the first university virtual museum in Spain, and has been created with the aim of disseminating the cultural heritage of the UB. The project encompasses over 250 pieces that demonstrate the vast disciplinary and patrimonial wealth of the UB, and has been initially organized in nine collections, including the Documentation Centre of the Centre de Documentació Col·lecció Sabater Pi and the herbarium of BCN of the Documentation Centre of Plant Biodiversity Centre de Documentació de Biodiversitat Vegetal (CeDocBiV), both based at the Barcelona Science Park. A second phase will introduce new elements in already existing ones and the number of collections will be increased.
The closing ceremony of the practical programme “Spend the Summer at the Park”, organized every year by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), was held at 12.00 hours on Wednesday 23 September. The programme is directed to students in the second cycle and aims to offer them the opportunity to participate in some of the research projects that are being carried out in the groups, institutes and businesses that are now based in the PCB, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the world of research.
This year a group of secondary school students from 40 schools in Catalonia will conduct their 2009-2010 school year research project in collaboration with researchers from the Barcelona Science Park (PCB). This collaboration is possible thanks to the “Tutoring for Secondary School Students” programme, promoted by the Science Diffusion Area of the PCB together with the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and the support of the Social Welfare Department of the Caixa de Catalunya. The objective of this programme is to promote research in the educational community, as well as to encourage scientific vocations amongst the youth.
On May 20th and 21st the Palau de Congressos of Catalonia (The Congress Centre in Barcelona) will host the eighth edition of the «Day of the Entrepreneur», the largest annual meeting point for entrepreneurs and support services for business initiatives and growth in Barcelona. The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation (FBG) –with offices at the Barcelona Science Park- is one of the more than 60 institutions that will be participating in this event with the objective of providing its support to the city’s companies.
Next Saturday, May 16, the “Inventiveness Party” will be held at the Auditorium of the Vertex Building of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. This initiative is framed within the programme “« Enginycat! », created by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, and aims to recognise the talent and effort of 100 young Catalan secondary students who received first prize in 2008 for their projects relating to science or technology. The three secondary students who won the “Research at Secondary Schools Awards”, granted annually by the Barcelona Science Park (PCB) with the support of the Obra Social Caixa Catalunya, are included amongst the winners.
A debate on “Climate Change: new challenges for the XXI century”, organised by the Catalan Institute for Climate Sciences (IC3), based at the Barcelona Science Park, was held on the 13 May at the Royal Academy of Sciences. The objective of the event was to establish a space for debate and reflection concerning the effects of global warming on water, energy, food and nutrition, tourism, and population’s health, especially in what concerns the proliferation of infectious diseases.
Fluctuations in light intensity allow restoring the regularity of circadian rhythms. This is the main conclusion of the work carried out by Javier Buceta, group leader of The.Si.M.Bio.Sys. Group(Theoretical and In Silico Modelling of Biological Systems) from the Co.S.Mo Lab –based at the Barcelona Science Park– and Antoni Díez-Noguera, dean at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Barcelona and group leader of Chronobiology at the Department of Physiology of the said faculty. Ekkehard Ullner and J. García Ojalvo, from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) have also participated in the work. The study, that has been published today, 6th of May, in Biophysical Journal, under the title “Noise-induced coherence in multicellular circadian clocks” (doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2009.02.031) appears on the front page of this journal.
