Innaguration of the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) H20 Building

Yesterday I went to Girona for the innaguration of the H2O building which will host the Catalan Institute for Water Research, or Institut Catala de Recerca de l'Aigua (ICRA). The institute was founded in 2006, and only three years later, they are now moving into to a new facility decked out with plenty of laboratory and office space. The initiative shows a clear commitment on behalf of the Catalan Government to promote and support water related research. The speaches by the public officials, including the Catalan Minister Josep Huguet, emphasized that Catalonia needs to reorient itself toward a knowledge based economy, driven by innovation and technology. The speed at which they have build ICRA demonstrates that the money is where their mouth is. And ICRA is likely to hire many more researchers in the upcomming year. I was able to briefly meet one of these researchers working on ecosystem services, Vicenç Acuña. It was encouraging to meet other people doing similar work, and I hope to develop some sort of intellectual exchange with them, since no doubt they are more familiar with the Mediterranean ecosystems than I am, and have much to teach me. Overall, ICRA shows tremendous promise as a cutting edge research center.