Contents
Annual report 2022
From the ICM Challenges Local Theory Us the Present
to the World Research Global Action Society the Future
A year of changes
The year 2022 has been a year of changes for the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM). Valentí Sallarès has replaced as director Josep Lluís Pelegrí, who had headed the Institute for the last four years. Among the milestones reached during this period, it is worth highlighting the achievement, in 2020, of the Severo Ochoa Center of Exellence Accreditation, an award of maximum prestige that recognises the ICM as an international reference and which only some thirty research centres in Spain have. In fact, the ICM is the only marine research centre with this distinction.
To better respond to the Institute’s mission to pursue an excellent research that incorporates social commitment, this leadership change has been followed by a restructuring of the centre’s organisational chart, which now has a Deputy Direction for Scientific Strategy that includes an Associated Deputy Direction for Scientific-Technical Services, and a new Deputy Direction for Knowledge Transfer.
The latest includes an Associated Deputy Direction for Internationalisation and Science Diplomacy, and a Associated Deputy Direction for Marine Science Literacy, which together seek to promote a transition towards a more sustainable socio-economic system capable of improving the well-being of society and the planet.
All in all, the new management will ensure that the ICM continues to be an excellent research centre committed to the conservation and sustainable use of marine life and ecosystems, the mitigation of the impacts arising from natural hazards and anthropogenic activity, and the study of the ocean’s role in climate regulation.
Highlights
Excellence
One year more we have continued to attract talent, especially at the international level, and to generate an increasing number of high-impact publications.
During 2022 we have maintained the quality of our studies and we continue to be the marine research centre with the highest Nature Index at the national and Mediterranean level.
In addition, Stanford University has included 13 in-house scientists in its annual ranking of the most influential scientists, which lists the names of the 2% most cited research professionals in the world.
Nature Index: A ranking that focuses on articles published in a small selection of 82 scientific journals selected by an independent scientific committee according to their prestige. The size of the circles is proportional to the number of employees.
Staff
One of the most important milestones of this year has been the incorporation of an unprecedented number of permanent scientific staff. In this regard, the ICM now includes eight full scientists, two research professors and one additional research scientist. Moreover, nine researchers have been promoted to a higher level.
We have also remained committed to attracting young talent, promising new researchers who will lead our research in the future. In total, during 2022, 11 doctoral students and 20 postdoctoral researchers have been incorporated from competitive public calls as demanding as the Ramon y Cajal, Marie Slkłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships, Juan de la Cierva, or Beatriu de Pinós grants. We have also supervised numerous doctoral theses and final degree and master’s degree projects.
2022
314
TOTAL
Women
Men
Categories
| Total | Women | Men | |
|
Senior Researchers |
75 |
25 |
50 |
|
Postdoctorals Researchers |
50 |
28 |
22 |
|
PhD Students |
48 |
27 |
21 |
|
Technical Staff |
101 |
75 |
26 |
|
Admin & Support Staff |
40 |
24 |
16 |
'Ciutat de Barcelona 2022' Award
CARMEN GARCÍA-COMAS & PEDRO CERMEÑO
For their work on the development of a diversification model that explains how marine biodiversity has evolved over the last 500 million years.
Training
Within the framework of the ‘ICM Cares’ programme, the centre offers its staff training and mentoring programmes to contribute to their professional development and to their critical and independent thinking.
During 2022, the MARINA mentoring programme has been launched, with 14 pairs of mentor-mentees. The ICM Cares training programme offered 18 courses attended by 130 people.
We have also continued to hold the traditional “Friday Talks”, weekly conferences in which the latest developments in marine sciences are shared. These talks are live streamed and available on our YouTube channel.
"Friday Talks"
30
TALKS
50
Women
50
Men
Equality
The Equality Task Force has implemented the ICM Gender Equality Plan, a document approved in 2021 that aims to advance in the achievement of effective equality between women and men. The Plan includes several actions aimed at promoting the participation, recognition and research initiatives of women at the ICM.
Protocol for the Prevention and Detection of Sexual Harassment
A tool for preventing, detecting and sanctioning any manifestation of sexual harassment or harassment based on sex that takes place in the centre. It establishes reference persons who have the role of informing, advising and accompanying in these cases.
Among the actions implemented this year, the following stand out: the creation of an Assistant Deputy Directorate for Equality; a gender-equal management team; the publication of a specific Guide for Inclusive Communication for the centre; the presentation of the Protocol for the Prevention and Detection of Cases of Sexual Harassment and Harassment for Reasons of Sex at the ICM and the appointment of the persons of reference who will deal with these cases; as well as an institutional declaration of zero tolerance towards gender-based violence and violence for reasons of sex.
Finally, the implementation of good practices has continued, such as the establishment of criteria to ensure that the allocation of funds from internal calls for proposals is gender-sensitive.
In order to celebrate the 'Women and Girls in Science Day', two murals were painted in collaboration with students of several schools in La Barceloneta that pay tribute to Marta Estrada, Pepita Castellví, Ángeles Alvariño, Lynn Margulis, Sylvia Earle and Rachel Carson, women who have made significant contributions in the field of marine and environmental sciences. The work is based on the illustrations from the exhibition "dONes: motor de la recerca científica i ambiental".
Publications
We have continued to increase the number of publications following the trend of previous years and have maintained their impact index. Likewise, the percentage of women leading the authorship of research has risen to 41%, getting closer to the gender parity.
309
PAPERS
1ST DECILE
1ST QUARTILE
21
Papers in journals with an impact factor over 15
Open Access
94
Publications in Open Access
First author ratio
41
Women
59
Men
Selected publications
Multidisciplinarity is one of the keys to the ICM’s excellent results. In this sense, the centre has experts in most areas of marine research that allow it to carry out cutting-edge research.
Earth's environmental stability enabled the explosion of marine biodiversity
P. Cermeño et al. (2022) Nature
The study presents a diversification model that reconstructs the history of marine species diversity from the Cambrian, some 540 million years ago, to the present. The results suggest that today’s marine biodiversity is a consequence of long periods of environmental stability that allowed the development of biodiversity hotspots, i.e. regions with a large number of species.
Changes and stability in the evolutionary history of sexual systems in fishes
S. Pla et al. (2022) Nature Communications
This work reveals that the ancestral sexual system of fishes was separate sexes and not hermaphroditism, as had been proposed. This is the most comprehensive study ever conducted on the evolution of sexual systems in animals, with more than 4,600 species of fish from all the world’s seas analysed.
Global warming accelerates the water cycle leading to significant climatic consequences
E. Olmedo et al. (2022) Scientific Reports
According to the study, this could lead to a destabilisation of the global climate system, an intensification of storms in specific areas and an acceleration of the ice melting at the poles. One of the causes could be the increased evaporation of water from the seas and oceans as a result of rising temperatures, which leads to more water circulating in the atmosphere in the form of vapour, 90% of which will end up precipitating back into the sea.
Plate boundary activation between Africa and the Iberian Peninsula could cause large tsunamis
L. Gómez de la Peña et al. (2022) Nature Communications
The work defines for the first time the complex geometry of this active fault system and assesses its potential capacity to produce large earthquakes that, in turn, could trigger devastating tsunamis along the westernmost Mediterranean coast. Due to a lack of data, previously available studies underestimated the seismic and tsunami risk of the fault system that forms the plate boundary in this area.
Offshore wind farms should be moved away from protected areas in the Mediterranean Sea
J. Lloret et al. (2022) Science of the total environment
This is the main conclusion of a study with the participation of the ICM that takes as a case study the mega offshore wind farm planned in the area of Cap de Creus and the Gulf of Roses, where eight marine protected areas converge. The study warns of the “serious impacts” that these facilities could have on marine biodiversity, the landscape, fishing and tourism.
Marine heatwaves cause recurrent mass mortality events in the Mediterranean Sea
J. Garrabou et al. (2022) Global Change Biology
The study proves that, between 2015 and 2019, these events affected the entire Mediterranean basin, including populations of more than 50 species. The impacts of mortalities were observed between the surface and 45 m depth, where the recorded marine heat waves were exceptional, affecting more than 90% of the Mediterranean.
Oceanographic and coastal campaigns
In 2022, our campaigns have been fully reactivated to deepen our understanding of the ocean conservation status and contributing to the improvement of its health and the management of the resources it provides.
In total, our colleagues have spent 698 working days embarked on 17 oceanographic campaigns and 878 days embarked on coastal campaigns.
1576
WORKING DAYS AT SEA
International projection
The creation of the associated Deputy Directorate of Internationalisation and Science Diplomacy has boosted relations between the ICM and other institutions, especially at the international level, which has contributed to the projection of the centre at a global level.
TransOcean
The ICM coordinates this permanent working group of the EuroMarine network, the main association of marine centres in Europe. It is made up of representatives from 13 European marine research centres, including the CSIC, and focuses on the network's oceanic and transoceanic programmes that for some reason are considered cross-cutting and transformative.
UN Ocean Conference 2022
The ICM participated in the UN Lisbon 2022 Conference to foster a new chapter of global action to protect the ocean in the framework of the Ocean Decade. More than 7,000 people from 150 countries attended the meeting with the aim of finding innovative solutions for a more sustainable management of the blue planet.
Boosting transfer
During 2022 we kept on prioritising transfer and collaborations with different actors and sectors related to marine research. In this sense, co-governance actions have been carried out with the public, different companies and administrations with the aim of valuing and exploiting the results of our research and contributing to improving the ocean’s well-being and, ultimately, that of the planet.
Creation of the Knowledge Transfer Committee
A consultative body coordinated by the Transfer centre's Deputy Directorate, which includes the assistant deputy directorates for Marine Science Literacy and Internationalisation. This committee is responsible for taking decisions, coordinating, monitoring and promoting the transfer of knowledge to the centre.
Promotion of the SOMMA impact and narrative group
Working group with other centres of excellence to reflect on the evaluation of research and define new transfer indicators that reflect the social impact.
Two patents with ISDIN
Two patents related to the field of cosmetics and pharmacology have been designed in collaboration with the company ISDIN to develop first aid protocols based on scientific evidence in cnidarians.
Flagship projects
PREP4BLUE
Will lay the foundation for co-creating and co-implementing the research and innovation needed to achieve the Horizon Europe Mission “Restore our Oceans and Waters by 2030”. The ICM is involved in a number of tasks, and is also coordinating the “Supporting networks and networks involving citizens” task.
Total value of the projects awarded in 2022
In terms of external funding, in 2022 we have achieved exceptional results. We managed to raise almost €15 million in competitive funds, exceeding the 2021 figure by €3 million. Of this €14 million, half came from international competitive funding sources, with special relevance to our participation in the Horizon Europe programme.
Our economic capacity grows
Year after year we are increasing our income. In 2022, around 60% comes from external and competitive funds.
This graph shows the origin of the income received in 2022. Competitive funding comes from competitive projects, industry contracts and private funding. Basal funding is non-competitive funding received from CSIC.
We promote ocean literacy to involve society in caring for the ocean.
At the ICM we understand ocean literacy as part of our social commitment. For this reason, the Marine Science Literacy task force has now an associated deputy-director through which we aim to promote public knowledge and appreciation of the ocean.
OUTREACH
In terms of outreach activities, the production of the documentary “Relats del Canvi Global. Capítol I: Delta de l’Ebre“, a piece on how the inhabitants of the Ebro Delta have adapted to the changes caused by the climate crisis in recent decades.
EDUCATION
On 8 June (World Ocean Day), more than 250 pupils walked through the streets of the Barceloneta neighbourhood, transformed for a day into sea currents to celebrate the “Ocean Barceloneta Gymkhana“.
In addition, the PlànctON project has generated an interactive website and various educational resources to deepen the knowledge of the invisible world of marine microorganisms.
CITIZEN SCIENCE
The ICM’s longest-running citizen science platform, Observadores del Mar, celebrated its tenth anniversary and consolidated as a reference platform with the support of CSIC marine research centers.
The “Biomarató-Platges amb vida” has expanded throughout Europe and Barcelona City Council has been able to add a layer of fish to its Biodiversity Atlas thanks to the data provided by MINKA citizen science platform.
Communication
This year we remained very present in the media and on social networks, where we already have more than 16,000 followers, 43% more than in 2021.
Highlighted media appearances
We imagine a more sustainable future for the ocean, and we investigate and act to make it happen.
The good results achieved in 2022 support the fact that the ICM is a marine research centre of excellence with potential to undertake interdisciplinary research challenges both locally and globally.
Much of this year’s efforts have been devoted to fostering the transfer of knowledge and technology generated in the broadest sense. In this regard, we have strengthened our ties with public administrations, but also with private enterprises, and we kept fostering science as a culture to involve society in building the future we want for the ocean.
All these actions aim to give visibility to the Institute’s research, and we are convinced that they will help to improve the main indicators of the ICM in terms of scientific production, social and economic impact, training activities, visibility and talent attraction.
Looking ahead to 2023, we will continue to promote major research projects that will surely have a strong impact on society. These include a new operational oceanography system with open data at the service of the entire scientific and management community in the marine field (the operational branch of ICATMAR) and a new centre for the promotion of marine research open to the public and the different social sectors linked to the sea (Barcelona Mar de Ciència), among others.
We are also working hard to increase our presence in important initiatives in the business sector, where we play the role of guarantors of sustainability (Bluewave Foundation), playing a leading role in what will probably be the most important public event of 2024 on marine issues (the first conference of the Ocean Decade, which will take place in Barcelona in April 2024).
