Earth Sciences Department at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is one of the leading supercomputing centres in Europe, which integrates Artificial Intelligence and High Performance Computing (HPC) to tackle strategic major applications of important societal impact. BSC missions are: 1) To facilitate scientific progress with a special emphasis on Computer, Life and Earth Sciences and Engineering, plus Computational Social Sciences and Digital Humanities; 2) To host one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, the European supercomputer MareNostrum 5; 3) And to transfer the knowledge and technology for a sustainable future.

Within BSC, the Earth Sciences (ES) Department researches climate, air quality, atmospheric composition, and climate-related impacts, including agriculture, energy and public health. The Department is also involved in technology management and transfer, and in providing real-time information on air quality, mineral dust and climate. To this end, it performs fundamental research and develops global and regional environmental modelling, forecasts, data solutions and tailored services using dynamic models and artificial intelligence (AI) with techniques requiring high-performance computing.

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Since its establishment in 2006, the ES Department has become a reference in climate- and air quality-related research in Europe and beyond, as well as in health and other societal impacts of climate change.

The Global Health Resilience (GHR) group, within which the candidate would work, works on co-designing policy-relevant decision-support tools to enhance surveillance, preparedness, and response to global health challenges. The GHR group applies cutting-edge approaches to understand the links between climate change, socio-economic inequalities, and infectious disease emergence and spread, from local to global scales. It contributes to international initiatives to ensure these digital tools have a downstream impact to strengthen global health resilience to emerging threats.

Frontier Research
Climate change, environmental degradation, and socio-economic inequalities can increase the risk of infectious disease outbreaks and lead to excess mortality and morbidity. The goal of the Global Health Resilience (GHR) group at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center is to co-design decision-support tools to enhance surveillance, preparedness, and response to global health challenges, including climate-sensitive infectious diseases.

At the GHR group, the researchers apply a transdisciplinary approach, co-developing solutions at the interface of epidemiology, climate science, planetary health, biology, statistical modelling, machine learning, and data science.

Their cutting-edge methodological research aims to understand the links between environmental change, socio-economic inequalities, and infectious disease emergence and spread from global to local scales.

Through a co-creation process, they develop indicators, impact-based forecasting models and early warning systems at sub-seasonal to decadal time scales, which help to anticipate future risk in collaboration with public health, disaster risk management, and humanitarian agencies all over the globe.

Moreover, the group works closely with climate scientists, software engineers and knowledge integration experts from across the Earth Sciences Department, as well as researchers specialising in disease intelligence data generation.

These collaborations ensure integration with the latest technology and novel data streams to strengthen decision-support tools for public health decision-makers that ultimately build resilience to emerging health threats and protect the most at-risk communities.

The research of the GHR group contributes to global initiatives to ensure digital tools have a downstream policy impact to strengthen global health resilience to emerging health threats.

Carlos Simon Foundation – For Research in Women’s Health

The Carlos Simon Foundation for Research in Women’s Health (CSF) was founded in June 2022 alongside a group of visionaries, philanthropists, and scientists. The Foundation’s main mission is to improve health, quality of life and quality of care in the field of reproductive medicine and women’s health. To this end, specific objectives are pursued:
– Promote biomedical research, both basic and translational, for the generation of knowledge and its social projection.
– To promote the training of specialized professionals in the sector and medical education.
– Promote female reproductive health through dissemination and communication.

Research, as a fundamental pillar, follows a patient-centered approach and is based on the values of commitment and scientific excellence. We focus on the scientific understanding of the periconceptional space to improve our knowledge of infertility, parturition and pregnancy complications, menopause, uterine tumours, and uterine and ovarian cancer. Our work is based on 5 key research lines that are of interest for the global scientific community which are:

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1- Impact of the microbiome on reproduction (Host researcher: Inmaculada Moreno) :
Focused on the endometrial microbiome and its clinical implications in infertility and obstetric complications such as implantation failure, recurrent miscarriage and preterm delivery

2- Maternal-fetal crosstalk (Host researcher: Felipe Vilella):
Focused on understanding the mechanisms of communication between the mother and the embryo and elucidating how the mother genetically modifies the preimplantation embryo.

3- Maternal contribution in obstetric pathologies (Host researcher: Tamara Garrido):
The main focus of our group is deciphering the origin and causes of pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia.

4- Gynecological tumors (Host researcher: Aymara Mas):
We focus on the development of accurate and non-invasive diagnostic methods for gynecologic tumors.

5- Menopause and ovarian rejuvenation (Host researchers: Xavi Santamaría-Felipe Vilella):
Focused on understanding the mechanisms of ovarian aging and developing new strategies to delay or prevent reproductive aging.

Our main activity is biomedical research in the field of reproductive medicine and women’s health, focusing on clinical translation. As a multidisciplinary team of more than forty professionals, we are proud to be linked to the University of Valencia and the INCLIVA Health Research Institute (IIS INCLIVA). INCLIVA is a prestigious research center accredited by the Carlos III Health Research Institute, Spain’s leading national body for promoting health research. This prestigious affiliation enhances our institutional capacity, fosters academic careers, and ensures that our research meets the highest national standard. Together, we work to create a world where pathologies affecting the UTERUS will no longer be an impossible barrier.

Frontier Research
Our research at the Carlos Simon Foundation for Research in Women’s Health qualifies as frontier research due to its innovative approach to addressing critical and globally impactful challenges in women’s health. We are dedicated to deciphering the complex molecular, genetic, and microbiological mechanisms of the human uterus in both health and disease, with a strong emphasis on translational research that directly benefits clinical practice.
Women’s health, particularly in the areas of infertility, pregnancy complications, uterine tumors, and menopause, is often under-researched despite its profound impact on global health:
-Infertility affects up to 186 million individuals worldwide, with approximately 35% of cases attributed to uterine dysfunction.
-Preterm birth impacts 10% of pregnancies, while preeclampsia results in the death of millions of infants and mothers annually.
-Menopause affects 50% of the world’s population after age 50, leading to significant changes in women’s health and well-being.
-Uterine tumours, which are present in 70% of women globally, and ovarian cancer, the deadliest gynaecological cancer, pose immense public health challenges.

Our institution tackles these issues through cutting-edge research programs, leveraging the latest scientific advances in microbiome research, maternal-fetal communication, obstetric pathologies, gynaecological tumours, and ovarian rejuvenation. Each of our research lines is aimed at uncovering new insights into these conditions and developing innovative, evidence-based solutions that can transform clinical outcomes for women worldwide.
Moreover, the interdisciplinary nature of our research, involving experts in molecular biology, genetics, microbiology, and clinical practitioners in our projects allows for a direct connection between research and patient care, offering journalists the opportunity to engage with both scientists and clinicians, gaining insights into the real-world applications of our work.

The Carlos Simon Foundation embodies the characteristics of frontier research: high-risk, high-reward investigations that push the boundaries of current knowledge to achieve breakthroughs in women’s health. In this context, the Carlos Simon Foundation is well-positioned to host journalists under the FRONTIERS initiative by integrating cutting-edge scientific methodologies with a patient-centered approach, our research not only addresses fundamental biological questions but also aims to develop novel therapeutic approaches, thus contributing to the advancement of healthcare.

For a green and healthy future

The National Institute of Chemistry, which can look back on over 75 years of tradition and scientific excellence, is setting a new milestone in the Slovenian research landscape with two new research facilities with which the institute is embarking on the path to a healthier and greener future.
The first is the Center for Gene and Cell Therapy Technologies (CTGCT) and the second is the Center for the Development, Demonstration and Training of Carbon-Free Technologies (DUBT). Both centers are already established and are now in the process of moving to new premises, which are currently being developed.

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CENTER FOR GENE AND CELL THERAPY TECHNOLOGIES (CTGCT)
This center of excellence will make an important contribution to Slovenian healthcare by bringing together Slovenian experts with their colleagues from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany. The main goal of the CTGCT is to develop new, personalized treatments. Statistics show that one in three people will develop cancer in their lifetime, and five percent of the world’s population suffers from a rare genetic disease. Advanced technologies such as gene and cell therapies offer potentially effective treatments for these conditions.

CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT, DEMONSTRATION AND TRAINING OF CARBON-FREE TECHNOLOGIES (DUBT)
This center will be established to ensure the development of technologies for the green transition. With the green transition, Slovenia and Europe will become climate-neutral and energy-independent more easily and quickly. At the same time, this is an important contribution to achieving the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Slovenia by at least 40% by 2030, as well as a contribution to the fight against global warming. DUBT aims to bridge the gap between the development of advanced carbon-free technologies and their industrial application. By providing state-of-the-art facilities and equipment for research, development and training, the center will accelerate the transfer of knowledge from research units to industry and facilitate the commercialization of innovative solutions.

Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine

The Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) was established in 2023 through the merger of the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM) and Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC), two leading research institutes in Portugal. GIMM is dedicated to pioneering frontier research that pushes the boundaries of scientific knowledge and addresses pressing global health challenges. Its vision is grounded in a commitment to scientific excellence and societal impact, making it a hub for groundbreaking discoveries that transform our understanding of biology and human health.
GIMM’s 39 research groups, comprising over 700 researchers, are dedicated to six core scientific areas: cell and developmental biology, gene regulation, evolution, host-pathogen interactions, immunity and inflammation, and neurosciences. By exploring these fields, GIMM aims to answer fundamental questions that drive the development of innovative solutions, from basic scientific discoveries to tangible healthcare applications. Its work not only advances the frontiers of molecular medicine but also seeks to bridge the gap between discovery and practical application, ensuring that its findings directly contribute to improving health outcomes and promoting equity on a global scale.

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In fact, GIMM’s structure includes two core components: GIMM Discovery, which focuses on fundamental research and the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs, and GIMM Care, which emphasizes the application of scientific knowledge to improve healthcare and quality of life. Through the Care initiative, GIMM aims to revolutionize clinical and translational research by creating a pioneering Center of Excellence in Portugal. This people-centered, data-driven model brings together a diverse range of stakeholders to collaboratively address key health challenges, accelerate the translation of research into clinical practice, and foster innovative solutions that respond to the most urgent healthcare needs.

Through these efforts, GIMM stands at the forefront of global efforts to enhance scientific understanding and improve human health, making it an ideal partner for those committed to supporting cutting-edge research with profound societal impact.

Frontier Research

At GIMM, we position our science at the forefront of frontier research by embracing a bold and transformative approach to discovery that integrates fundamental and applied research. Our unique structure, divided into GIMM Discovery and GIMM Care, embodies this vision by unifying curiosity-driven exploration with a focus on real-world healthcare solutions.
GIMM Discovery is the heart of our fundamental research, where scientists are encouraged to pursue groundbreaking ideas that push the boundaries of our understanding of biology and human health. This component thrives on curiosity-driven research, fostering a culture where curiosity, innovative thinking and interdisciplinary collaboration are encouraged. By nurturing this exploratory spirit, GIMM Discovery not only advances our knowledge but also lays the groundwork for future innovations that can have profound impacts on science and society.
GIMM Care, on the other hand, is dedicated to translating these fundamental discoveries into practical applications that directly address healthcare challenges. By focusing on clinical and translational research, GIMM Care aims to shorten the path from fundamental scientific discoveries to real-world health solutions. This component brings together a diverse network of stakeholders, including clinicians, researchers, patients, and industry partners, to co-create innovative, data-driven approaches that enhance health outcomes and promote equity.
The synergy between GIMM Discovery and GIMM CARE ensures a dynamic flow of knowledge and innovation, where fundamental research informs applied projects, and practical needs inspire new scientific questions. This interconnected approach enables GIMM to rapidly adapt to evolving healthcare challenges, driving both scientific excellence and societal impact. By bridging the divide between curiosity-driven research and its application, we position GIMM not just as a leader in molecular medicine but as a catalyst for transformative change in global health.
Beyond the walls of GIMM, we actively shape the national and European R&D landscape through collaboration, promoting excellence in research and training, and engaging society in scientific and cultural development. Our efforts extend beyond traditional boundaries, pushing the limits of scientific knowledge and making a profound impact on global health and well-being. By focusing on ensuring these values and aims, GIMM stands at the forefront of frontier research, driving transformative change and advancing the frontiers of molecular medicine.


Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca

Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (BBU) is one of Romania’s most prestigious and dynamic universities, committed to academic excellence, innovation, and community impact. Its main strength is the comprehensive approach to research, from natural sciences and engineering to cognitive sciences and humanities. Located in a growing tech-hub, BBU is involved in identifying solutions to the environmental and human challenges brought by economic growth, and in preserving local heritage through frontier research.

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PROGRESS: Reading provenance from ubiquitous quartz: understanding the changes occurring in its lattice defects in its journey in time and space by physical methods .
ERC-funded project developing a new, beyond state of the art, provenance and multi-scale time analysis method for rock samples, based on analyzing quartz – an abundant mineral, whose structure and defects can record time as they trap charge during interaction with natural radioactivity.

Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in Bio-Nano-Sciences.
The main BBU facility for experimental interdisciplinary research, with a focus on bio-, nano-sciences, and on the interface of biosystems with artificially or naturally nanostructured systems. Transferring the experimental results into industry is also one of the institute’s main goals.

Strengthening the Research Capacities for Extreme Weather Events in Romania – SCEWERO.
Horizon-funded project aiming at developing AI-enhanced abilities to forecast extreme heat and precipitation events using emerging technologies. The goal is to redesign the thresholds for early warnings in Romania for heat events, currently undervalued, and to increase the communities’ resilience when facing such extreme events.

The PsyTech-MATRIX PLATFORM – Platform for Robotics/Robotherapy and Virtual Reality Enhanced Therapy.
Platform hosting laboratories and technologies underlying the integration of psychology and technology as means of evidence-based mental health services. It focuses on stress control, enhanced cognitive-behavioral therapies for children, adolescents and parents, and makes use of digital affective technologies and therapeutic robots.

RESTORY – Recovering Past Stories for the Future: A Synergistic Approach to Textual and Oral Heritage of Small Communities.
Horizon-funded project focused on the challenges faced by small and middle-sized communities of past and present in sustainably managing and reusing a limited amount of human and material resources, with the aim of helping citizens and researchers understand the drives behind (re)use and (re)adaptations.

NOTA – Note-taking and Notebooks as Channels of Medieval Academic Dissemination across Europe.
ERC-funded project studying medieval university learning by delving into deep creative reflections on the motivation and technical aspects involved in producing notebooks of the 14th and 15th centuries, when paper entered universities, aiming to elucidate their role in knowledge transfer.

Cosmology & Astroparticle physics

Our group works on the fields of theoretical cosmology and astroparticle physics with the goal of understanding the fundamental laws of the universe, exploiting synergies between astrophysical observations and laboratory experiments. This project would be embedded within UNDARK, a recently founded consortium funded by the EU “Widening participation and spreading excellence programme” (TWINNING project number 101159929). This consortium will carry out, from 2024 until 2027 and in collaboration with other partner institutions such as CERN, or the CNRS, an intense scientific and outreach program focused on shedding light on the so-called “dark universe”.

As we currently know from astrophysical observations, barely 18% of the total matter of the Cosmos is made up of the elements in atoms with which we are familiar, while the remaining 82%, termed dark matter, is the dominant type of matter in galaxies. In addition, all matter, ordinary and dark, currently only makes up 31% of the energy in the universe, with the rest being an even more mysterious component called dark energy which causes the universe as a whole to accelerate while it is expanding.

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Advancing these fundamental questions is currently the focus of a multidisciplinary effort at the frontiers of astroparticle physics and cosmology, that is setting the scene for future scientific breakthroughs. Among these major puzzles, the problem of dark matter exhibits the most diverse set of observational manifestations, ranging from the cosmic microwave background and the large-scale distribution of galaxies to galactic dynamics. Hence, this area of astroparticle physics is the subject of extensive theoretical scrutiny.

The ultimate scientific goal of the UNDARK consortium is to explore the dark universe and, in particular, discover what is dark matter made of. For this, we plan to use the state-of-the-art telescopes and facilities installed in the Canary Islands Observatories with the assistance of world-class institutions on the fields of astroparticle physics and cosmology. We have planned a vibrant scientific and artistic exchange program, several scientific meetings and schools, as well as there will be scientific staff and a scientific illustrator hired under the project.

Chalmers University of Technology

Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level. The university has 3,100 employees and 10,000 students, and offers education in engineering, science, shipping and architecture.

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Some research areas to highlight:

Cutting edge quantum research
Chalmers is building Sweden’s first quantum computer and developing quantum algorithms for application in massive simulations in the research centre WACQT. Also being studied are new quantum materials for quantum technologies, quantum sensing and quantum optics.

Materials research for green transition
At Chalmers, there is experimental and theoretical research in the field of energy. This includes the conversion of solar energy and energy storage in novel batteries to large-scale transport of energy, with significant breakthroughs in structural batteries and floating solar energy. The research is conducted on renewable raw materials, lightweight materials and reduced environmental impact of materials.

Optimisation of human health
Chalmers has a field of research that focuses on optimisation of human health. This includes cutting edge research in the development of improved diagnostics, prevention of resistant bacterial infections, including through the development of materials such as graphene and gels, new methods for drug delivery and precision nutrition.

Microwave and antenna technology
At Chalmers, there are close collaborations with industry leaders for certain research, including improvement of hardware, such as transmitters and receivers for 6G, integration of gallium nitride technology and space components required to perform in extreme conditions. Researchers are developing the wireless systems of the future for everything from cancer treatment to self-driving cars, fast mobile networks and space antennas. Chalmers’ cleanroom and Gigahertz lab are world-class research environments.

Sustainable energy systems
At Chalmers, there is research on electric power generation and distribution to increase renewable and variable electricity in the power system, as well as research into materials and diagnostics for high-voltage networks. Within energy, road transport is the dominant field of research, but there are also studies looking into hydrogen, electric and hybrid vehicles, how a vehicle’s energy impacts design and environmental impact, as well as industrial combustion and gasification processes, carbon capture and energy systems analysis.

About the city of Gothenburg
Gothenburg is an open and welcoming city on the west coast, with a buzzing city centre, a picturesque archipelago and great travel connections to all the capital cities nearby. The city is leading the way in technology and logistics, being the hub for Northern Europe’s automotive industry and the main port for northern Europe. It also boasts thriving industry clusters and two highly ranking universities.


Genome of Europe

The Genome of Europe project is at the forefront of science and will -for the first time- bring together a large and comprehensive genetic dataset of DNA variation across all major groups of citizens living in Europe. GoE represents a unique collaboration across >30 countries to gather genetic information from their citizens as a reference database and make that accessible for medical and basic research. It is a very important first step to start using genetic information in health care and prevention, in particular in personalized or precision medicine and prevention.
So far, several genetic datasets have been available to scientists but these were relatively small and biased towards in particular inhabitants of the USA and UK. While the current GoE project is funded to collect at least 100,000 genomes of European citizens, the GoE database is expected to grow to >500,000 reference genomes as part of the 1 million genomes initiative (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/1-million-genomes). The GoE project promotes scientific excellence by bringing together the major genetic groups, bio-informaticians, ELSI experts, and sequencing centers across Europe (>50 institutes and >200 scientists) which will collaborate in creating the GoE database for the coming 4 years.

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The project is highly innovative for genomics technology by using (combinations of) the latest whole genome sequencing techniques from diverse companies including Illumina, PacBio, Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT), and MGI. These include so-called long read sequencing techniques which have so far never been used in any genome database. Long read genome sequencing techniques allow to reveal the last missing 10% of the human genome after the Human Genome Project and its sequela since 2000 have determined the first 90% by short read technologies. GoE will boost such technological innovation and bring Europe to the forefront of genomics at the international stage.
Several ground breaking pilot projects are embedded that will use the genetic data as collected within GoE, such as the calibration of the polygenic risk scores (PRS) to local genetic variation. PRS are now widely investigated and also touted to move precision medicine and prevention forward, especially for the most common diseases of our greying society such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, and cardiovascular diseases. The large and diverse GoE dataset will allow such PRS to be implemented across European population subgroups that differ in their genetic background. Examples include the application of PRS in breast cancer screening programs based on mammography, cardiovascular screening programs using genetically determined cholesterol levels, and use of pharmacogenetic information to select and optimize medication.

Department of Mathematics – University of Valencia

The research done in applied mathematics can be crucial to numerical simulations in other fields in physics and astrophysics, so the nature of my research is quite multidisciplinary since input from the field associated to the simulations is crucial to succeeding. On the other hand, the gravitational wave astronomy field is qualified as frontier research due to the complexity of the research in all the areas involved, from building of the detectors to modeling source and development of data analysis techniques. Understanding the universe and all their fascinating objects has always had a great impact in our society.

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The research lines focus on applied mathematics and astrophysics, with special interest in the development of numerical methods for partial differential equations, numerical relativity and gravitational waves. Isabel Cordero-Carrión is currently a member of the Virgo Collaboration as part of the Valencia Virgo group. In this role, she holds several management positions: Isabel serves as one of the two co-ombudspersons, is the current Virgo outreach coordinator, and is a member of the Core Program committee. Additionally, she is involved with the Einstein Telescope project and the Einstein Telescope Preparation Phase project.

Apart from her teaching, research, and management responsibilities at the university, Isabel Cordero-Carrión is highly engaged in outreach and communication. She is a member of the team behind the Oscilador Armónico podcast, a regular participant in the Coffee Break: Señal y Ruido podcast, and occasionally contributes to the A Ciencia Cierta podcast.

Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine

The Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) was founded in 2009 as one of the first interdisciplinary research centres of the University of Luxembourg. Our staff members combine their expertise in a broad spectrum of disciplines – from computational biology to clinical and experimental neuroscience – to study the brain and its diseases.

The LCSB aims to gain a mechanistic understanding of neurodegenerative processes and to use the resulting knowledge to develop new ways to diagnose, prevent and treat neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. To realise this vision, we conduct research in the field of Systems Biology and Biomedicine – in the lab, in the clinic and in silico (computer modelling and simulations).

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For over a decade, the LCSB has established a state-of-the-art infrastructure and developed skills in several fields, such as genetics, metaproteomics, enzymology and cheminformatics. We foster interdisciplinarity because we strongly believe that complex problems can only be solved when the best minds from different disciplines come together and form a team.

We work together with scientific partners worldwide and carry out collaborative projects with research-oriented companies and hospitals, to accelerate the translation of research results into clinical applications and to tackle the growing issue represented by neurodegenerative diseases worldwide.