Three major Barcelona research institutes have announced they are forming a biomedical alliance, which is expected to make up a powerful center for research in southern Europe.

The new Biomedical Alliance of Barcelona will include research programs, infrastructure, and more than 2500 scientists from the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS), the Scientific Park of Barcelona (PCB), and the Biomedical Research Park of Barcelona (PRBB).

Barcelona, the dynamic capital city of Spain's Catalonia region, has become a model of urban cultural renewal for southern Europe. Now, it is hoped the city will become an international center for biomedical research.

Andreu Mas-Collell, head of the Catalan government's department of research and universities, told The Scientist that the alliance will represent about 50% of the biomedical research potential of Catalonia. Central to the initiative is the idea of unifying research efforts and sharing resources. For example, the alliance will have a shared animal facility as well as unified ethical committees for clinical research and animal experimentation.

IDIBAPS is a high-profile research institute mainly devoted to translational research. Researchers at IDIBAPS currently publish clinical papers with a higher total impact factor than those from any other Spanish research center. Its director, Juan Rodés, pointed out that scientists will be able to move freely among the institutes in the alliance, both to share expertise and facilities and, potentially, to shift among labs.

The PCB is on course to open in 2005 and will bring together a clutch of basic research institutes and spin-off companies. This park will accommodate more than 1000 scientists from both the public and private sectors.

The PRBB is currently under construction at a site located on the Barcelona seafront. The new building will house the existing, successful Municipal Institute of Medical Research (IMIM), the Department of Experimental and Health Sciences of Pompeu Fabra University, and the Center for Genomic Regulation. PRBB and will eventually employ more than 1000 staff.

On the basis of historical rivalry, "Catalan scientists like to compare themselves with the biomedical research potential of Madrid," said PRBB coordinator Jordi Camí. But "that's wrong," he argued. "Where the alliance will face true competitors is elsewhere in Europe and not in Madrid."

Josep M. Antó, head of the IMIM's Research Unit of Respiratory and Environmental Health, regards the alliance as a potentially useful umbrella in the context of the European Union's Sixth Framework Research Programme. He said it is "difficult to link various groups in the same city under initiatives such as 'Networks of Excellence.'" He also highlighted the potential usefulness of the alliance for the purposes of sharing infrastructure, like the cyclotron facility to be launched soon at IMIM.

Rodés noted that the alliance would be a model for other research centers elsewhere in Spain. And Mas-Collell hopes that the alliance will compete successfully with other top-flight European research centers. He said the alliance could still be joined by other research institutes and that his department would be prepared to back a second big research alliance in Catalonia.