Value proposition

Centre d'excel·lència científica en l'àrea de la recerca i tecnologia de nous materials funcionals

The Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona​ (ICMAB) is a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence research center which beongs to the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and is governed by a Foundation board.

The Institute was set up in 1986 and subsequently, in April 1991, the laboratories were opened at the Campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). It is part of the Barcelona Nanotechnology Cluster in Bellaterra.

The aim of the institute is to carry out research aimed at obtaining and characterising materials of industrial interest. Its activities are based on the synthesis, preparation, crystallization and characterisation of functional high-performance materials and nanomaterials, which in some cases have led to the construction of device prototypes based on these materials.

Studies and improvements both of conventional materials, as well as new molecular, supramolecular, magnetic, superconducting and porous materials etc. are being developed through projects and research contracts. There are currently 11 ERC funded projects at ICMAB.

To develop these activities, at present there are 61 senior researchers, around 80 postdoctoral fellows, and more than 100 PhD fellows, conducting research, and supported by a group of more than 25 technicians running the 9 Scientific Equipment Platforms, and around 25 more administration and management people supporting research.

In 2019 the ICMAB publications passed the 1600.000 citations, and it is currently the first centre, among the CSIC centres, in the Nature Index. 240 publications were published in 2019, 82 % of them in Q1, and 33 % in Gold Open Access journals.

Materials for information science and electronics, Materials for energy and environment, Materials for nanomedicine, and Nanomaterials