Page 5 - MEMOCiberesp014-ENG

news that will allow us to maintain and develop these singular infrastructures . A new path as an ICTS has begun . As always, a new beginning is usually filled with hopes and uncertainties, but we believe that ICTS has great potential to grow into competitive infrastructures .
Among the new initiatives put into action in 2014, the evaluation of researchers contracted by CIBER is featured in the development of the new strategic plan . 51 researchers with more than 3 years of contract in CIBER-BBN have been evaluated . Each researcher has been assessed by 2 external evaluators based on the CV of the researcher being evaluated, the report of said researcher and the report from the group PI . The aspects being considered include: scientific production, technology transfer, clinical transfer, leadership skill, alignment with CIBER-BBN strategic plan . 12 of the 51 researchers (24%) were categorized as excellent, 35 researchers (69%) were categorized as good, and finally 4 researchers (7%) were categorized as underperforming . These underperforming researchers will be subjected to a new evaluation after a period of 2 years so that it can be verified if the improvement actions have been fruit- ful, whereas the other researchers will again be evaluated after another period of 4 years .
At this moment, intramural projects are in the middle of the biannual period envisaged for said projects . 2 project categories have been established in this biennium: intramural projects of excellence which in- clude 27 projects (8 in Bioengineering, 5 in Biomaterials and 14 in Nanomedicine), and which given their greater value with chances of succeeding, gain higher priority when resolving the mobility aid calls for proposal and launching grants or manager appointment; and intramural projects of recognized activity which include a total of 22 projects (7 in Bioengineering, 7 in Biomaterials and 8 in Nanomedicine) and in which elements for improvement were identified in the proposal, but they were not identified as in- surmountable, in other words, they can quite probably be corrected .
For the first time ever, CIBER-BBN has a type of transfer projects in which CIBER works hand in hand with companies by funding 50% of projects in a state of maturity that makes them appealing for companies to get involved by providing funds . In order to move these projects further towards the end product, CIBER has decided to assign specific resources amounting to 250,000€ to these projects . The call for proposal was fairly successful and 4 projects were presented . All 4 projects obtained positive funding evaluation . Due to reasons not related to the project, one of them was subsequently withdrawn from the programme, so the transfer programme currently includes 3 projects under way with the participa- tion of companies, namely, BRUKER (Germany), SYLENTIS (ZELTIA group) and PRAXIS, plus the project with the company, FERRER, which was already being developed a year ago . Seeing how positive this experience is, a new extraordinary call for proposal for such projects was opened at the end of 2014 and it has been resolved in the first months of 2015 .
To finish with this actions review, it must be highlighted that CIBER-BBN has participated in key events such as BIO International Convention, BIO EUROPE or BIOSPAIN Conferences .
As a pilot experiment, a forum and seminar retransmission system has been approved this year . This re- transmission system can now be considered robust enough to start allowing continuously planning the retransmission of events of great interest .
Annual conferences were held in Girona in November and time was dedicated to review the progress made in the different intramural projects which, in this occasion, were organized by their clinical appli- cation, such that cross fertilization may have much greater effect, and with a clinical moderator which allows better reflection oriented from that point of view . The resources for carrying out these projects continue to be assigned to the groups according to evaluation results, and they must be adjusted to some of the 4 main objectives of CIBER-BBN: 1-To continue generating science and knowledge of exce- llence; 2-To do so in collaboration, giving value to the multidisciplinary and complementary natures of the different groups; 3-To do so together with clinical partners to achieve better translation to clinical practice; and 4-To do so thinking about and together with the industrial sector to which any develop- ments may be transferred and to give value to a society, who is ultimately funding and gives meaning to the results of our activity . Besides these presentations detailing the progress made in the projects, a session dedicated to presenting new ideas, usually presented by young researchers who, however, pre-
www .ciber-bbn .es 5