This Saturday was the open day of the fourth edition of Sinergia, the festival of research and innovation in health in L’Hospitalet. More than 250 people came to the Bellvitge Campus to be part of the everyday work to improve people’s health carried out by IDIBELL, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the Bellvitge University Hospital, the University of Barcelona, and Sant Joan de Deu Hospital. During the morning, a gymkhana, an escape room, guided tours through the facilities, and informative talks brought Bellvitge’s science closer to all visitors. The day culminated with a final party with prize ceremony for the gymkhana participants and a concert by EMMCA Gipsy Project, from the Music School and Arts Center of L’Hospitalet.
In the guided visits, the participants had the opportunity to visit the IDIBELL laboratories and experience its research in first person. At the end of each visit, an informative talk on embryonic development bioimaging was offered by Dr. Esteban Hoijman and another about the addictive power of cryptocoins by Dr. Susana Jiménez, both with great attendance success.
Another activity, which is already a classic and very successful among the external public, was the IDIescape, an escape room in the laboratories. The participants used their ingenuity and scientific skills to find a treatment for a fatal disease, only in this way they could finish the escape room.
As a novelty, this year, a gymkhana was held throughout the campus using a mobile application to resolve various challenges. The participants were moving around the entire campus in order to learn all its secrets and locations and finish the itinerary on time. All of them were awarded invitations to the Bellvitge municipal sports center and, in addition, the three fastest teams received a special prize from IDIBELL. Dr Gabriel Capellá, director of IDIBELL, welcomed all the participants valuing the joining forces of all the entities that are part of the Bellvitge Campus, one of the most important biomedical centers in the country, and highlighting the importance of carrying out activities such as these to bring the science closer to the public.
The open day is the cherry on top of a week full of science and activities aimed at showing the work that, jointly, all the biomedical entities of the Bellvitge Campus carry out. Throughout the week, more than 150 students from the University of Barcelona and students from the Tandem with the Institut Bellvitge visited different areas of the campus such as the operating rooms of the Hospital de Bellvitge, the robotic pharmacy of the Catalan Institute of Oncology, or the scientific services of IDIBELL. In addition, seven videos have been released showing the most cutting-edge research on the Campus within the series Quinaciència! and Tapes d’Innovació, which have already accumulated almost 700 views.
Sinergia is the festival of research and innovation in health in L’Hospitalet, led by the City Council of L’Hospitalet and framed in the strategic project 4locaLHealth: Research, Innovation and Health in the territory through personalized medicine (PECT, co-financed with European FEDER funds).
The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) is a biomedical research center created in 2004. It is participated by the Bellvitge University Hospital and the Viladecans Hospital of the Catalan Institute of Health, the Catalan Institute of Oncology, the University of Barcelona and the City Council of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat.
IDIBELL is a member of the Campus of International Excellence of the University of Barcelona HUBc and is part of the CERCA institution of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In 2009 it became one of the first five Spanish research centers accredited as a health research institute by the Carlos III Health Institute. In addition, it is part of the “HR Excellence in Research” program of the European Union and is a member of EATRIS and REGIC. Since 2018, IDIBELL has been an Accredited Center of the AECC Scientific Foundation (FCAECC).