The technology transfer team is also responsible for establishing strategic alliances and partnerships with industry and the private sector.
So far, ICFO has launched 7 spinoffs, including QuSide, HemoPhotonics, Droplite and Radiantis. The team led by Silvia Carrasco works on patenting research and helps to find companies ready to commercialize it. In addition, this body also has a large department working on technology transfer this means that they are concerned to ensure that the laboratory's advances and results reach society in the form of a product or service. In the words of its director, the ICFO's research programs "are on the frontiers of photonics worldwide and aim to address the important challenges facing society as a whole." "ICFO is one of the leading centers in the EU for research in quantum physics"īut the ICFO does much more than quantum physics with a team composed of numerous talented researchers (more than 70% from outside Spain), the research groups also study graphene, solar energy, optoelectronics, nanophotonics, biophotonics, and neurophotonics, etc. In addition, ICFO is one of the most prominent European research centers working on the Quantum Flagship project, a leading initiative in quantum physics developed by European Union. To give you an idea, in 2019, one of the ICFO researchers received more than one million dollars from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation in the USA to investigate hybrid quantum networks, which are essential for developing efficient quantum computers and, in the long term, for building a quantum internet. ICFO conducts pioneering projects in such important fields as quantum physics. This is the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), a center founded in 2002 by its current director, the scientist Lluís Torner.Īnd what is photonics exactly? Photonics studies the generation, transmission and manipulation of photons and is a dynamic field considered to be one of the key technologies of our era in applications for all areas of life, including health, energy and security. Find out about one of the most important photonic science research centersįew people in Barcelona know that just half an hour from the city (in Castelldefels) can be found one of the most important photonic science research centers in the world which carries out internationally-prestigious cutting-edge projects.