It is a pleasure to be celebrating our 10th anniversary. To be precise: it is a pleasure that the IBE exists and it is an honor to be part of it. We are first and foremost scientists, and the IBE is just a way that allows us to fulfill our dream and our mission: to do science. That is what the IBE is about: Science. It is only a small part of Science, if you want: Evolutionary Biology. But still a very exciting, wonderful and diverse Science.

What kind of science? Excellent Science, difficult Science, delightful science… and sometimes even brilliant and ground-breaking Science.

Science to Discover life. Science to Unravel evolution. Science to Preserve biodiversity.

And I can go on… Science to satisfy human curiosity, to advance knowledge, to contribute to progress, to serve our society, to improve our life and the life of our fellow citizens.

Looking back at our relatively short life, that is exactly what we have done and we keep doing: Science. Today, 10 years after our foundation (thanks Xavier Bellés and Jaume Bertranpetit!) we all should be proud of having done this Science.

We are small. Only 23 research groups, slightly over 120 scientists (young and not that young) and over 200 research projects developed in our center. Still, our organization and governance was designed in the image of the best centers in our intimidating neighborhood (I really thank you for the inspiration, directors!). We are distributed among 5 scientific programs: Animal Biodiversity and Evolution (the science of describing life variation), Comparative and Computational Genomics (the science of learning from the differences across species), Functional Genomics and Evolution (the science of learning about how evolution actually works), Population Genetics (the science of human similarities and differences) and Complex Systems (the science of mechanisms behind evolution).

During these 10 years, we have done science in extremely difficult circumstances. Let me be very clear about this: the last 10 years have been, and still are, a continuous fight; a permanent struggle with 2 different locations and 2 institutions. Fighting for a project, fighting for a goal. This is why we all should be especially proud of our achievements over the last 10 years.

Numbers do not define Science. The dictatorship of numbers should not rule science, but it is also true that funding agencies do still rely on numbers, and while our science is well beyond these numbers, I am extremely proud to share the figures that define our science. And they clearly match excellence in most standards.

We got 4 ERC (with just 23PIs!), 5 ICREA researchers, plenty of success attracting young scientists - both national and internationally -, lots of awards and a very neat participation in top journals, with more than 3 papers a year in Evolutionary Biology top journals.

We have published in 10 years 36 papers in Nature, Science and Cell, 7 of them led by our researchers. I am fully aware that top journals do not represent better science exclusively, and indeed some areas are more attractive to others from an editorial perspective, but it is important to show that within IBE we do work very hard at all levels to be present and influential even at these highly competitive areas. I want to provide recognition to these groups for inspiring most of us at IBE.

But our efforts and impact must go obviously beyond publications. Indeed, we have been very active at describing new taxa (over 150 new species, subspecies and genera!), as there are still many species to be characterized and described.

I would also specially highlight the commitment we have with conservation and our efforts to preserve biodiversity. As you well know, we are in the middle of an astonishing 6th mass extinction. The planetary health does influence our health as species and, as such, I am specifically proud about the efforts that the University Pompeu Fabra (UPF) is doing to promote Planetary Wellbeing. Together with other partners (ISGlobal, Barcelona Zoo and BIST, EMBL and many others), we are in a privileged position to lead one of that many global efforts to revert patterns that soon will be too late to be mitigated. Our Institute, IBE, does have an important role in this global and ambitious mission: to study, preserve and restore Biodiversity.

And there is more, much more. I truly think that in the last 10 years we have achieved quite a few things: We have been growing scientifically from 15 initial groups to 23 groups; getting proper funding from the most prestigious agencies; creating the scientific and social dynamics that any good center must have; building constant ties with society. And last but not least, being very active in sensible topics such as gender balance (thanks Elena Casacuberta and Inaki Ruiz-Trillo!).

For all of this, we should all be very proud. And I positively know that we share that pride with our mother institutions, the UPF and the CSIC, which share our commitment to excellent and passionate science.

It hasn’t been easy - and it won't get any easier -, but today we celebrate that despite odds, we renew our commitment to Science. Working, yet again, for our building, with the hope that we will be able to research together in a single space and to grow to do even better science.

10 years from now, when we are in our new home and under the command of a new director, she or he will be able to thank our founders for their backing and encouragement. And we will be able to thank a new generation of scientists for their contributions to this amazing, staggering, vital planetary project that we call science. In the meantime, however, let me thank you all for everything that we have done together over the last 10 years. And let me thank you, above all, for the science that remains to be done and that, I am certain, we will be doing together.

 

 

Thank you so much.