Three centres in the BIST Scientific Community — ICFO, IBEC, and IFAE — have partnered with the CCCB, along with the ALBA Synchrotron, and the Catalan Government’s Department of Research and Universities, to launch the Radical Science project. This cultural initiative, with events from January to June 2025, brings together science, humanities, and the arts to explore how scientific research is transforming the modern world.
Radical Science, an initiative between the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), three BIST centres—the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), and the Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE)—the ALBA Synchrotron, and the Catalan Government’s Department of Research and Universities, launched on January 20, 2025. The programme includes scientific debates, artistic residencies for poets and artists, and visual and performing arts events. The initiative is the result of the collaboration between four Complementary Plans led from Catalonia, including the Complementary Plan for Biotechnology Applied to Health headed by IBEC.
The inaugural round-table debate, which took place at the CCCB, included the participation of the directors of the three BIST centres—Josep Samitier (IBEC), Lluís Torner (former ICFO director), and Eugenio Coccia (IFAE), as well as CCCB Director Judit Carrera, Director of the ALBA Sychrotron Caterina Biscari, and the Catalan Government’s General Director of Research and Universities Joan Gómez Pallarès. Together they reflected on the frontier research led by Catalonia and examined the most innovative initiatives in fields such as quantum communication, energy transition, personalised medicine, and the study of the universe. The event, moderated by science communicator Toni Pou, began with a screening of Superradiance, an audiovisual work by Memo Akten and Katie Peyton Hofstadter that integrates artificial intelligence, dance, and neuroscience.
Upcoming debates will address pressing questions in contemporary science, bringing together humanities scholars and scientists to discuss the ethical, social, and technological challenges posed by new technologies.
Programme of debates:
Inaugural session. Pioneering science in Catalonia
20.01 Judit Carrera / Joan Gómez Pallarès / Toni Pou / Lluís Torner / Caterina Biscari / Josep Samitier / Eugenio Coccia
The Second Quantum Revolution
24.01 Ignacio Cirac / Anna Fontcuberta
Reimagining Energy
20.02 Materia, performance by Maotik
21.02 Beatriz Roldán / Mar Reguant
06.06 Vaclav Smil
Editing Humanity
22.04 Katherine A. High / Salvador Macip
29.04 Robert Langer (online) / Jorge Volpi
Travelling to Origins
15.05 Didier Queloz / Nathalie Cabrol
16.05 Gabriela González
Closing ceremony. Scientific thought in the 21st century
18/19.06 Naomi Oreskes
In addition to these scientific debates, the Radical Science programme will include artistic residencies for poets and artists at the participating research centres, as well as visual and performing arts sections. These events aim to provide new perspectives on the challenges of the twenty-first century and encourage dialogue between science and art. The programme will also create opportunities for secondary school students to engage directly with prominent scientists such as Ignacio Cirac and Nathalie Cabrol, engaging the new generation in science.