SUMAN (www.icmab.es/suman) research focuses on the study of nanostructured functional oxides grown from chemical solutions. The major effort is on superconducting materials, including high throughput growth methods for thin films, nanocomposites and coated conductors, ink-jet deposition and combinatorial approaches for fast screening, search of new mechanism for vortex pinning and their correlation with nanoscale strain and atomic defects. A crucial initiative is the customization of coated conductors and advanced characterization for their integration in large scale applications.

Our mission is to design, modify, and explore the limits of molecular and hybrid materials based on boron clusters in the fields of optics, magnetism, (electro/photo)catalysis, and biomedicine. Our multidisciplinary approach bridges various research areas, including chemistry, physics, materials science, and biomedical research. We develop novel functional materials based on boron clusters to promote their application in socioeconomically relevant areas such as sustainable energy, environmental protection, and medicine.

The activities of the group are based on the application of chemical and magnetic crystallography methods to the investigation of emergent functional oxides. Combining an intensive use of Large Scale Facilities (such as neutron and synchrotron sources) with theoretical symmetry analysis methodologies, we investigate the symmetry-properties relationship associated to structural, magnetic or electronic orders in functional oxides.

The Crystallography Group's research focuses on the development and applications of diffraction methods in materials science. The focus has been on X-ray diffraction, including synchrotron radiation, with some contributions in neutron and electron diffraction. Of particular note are new methods for solving phase problems in crystallography and research into the relationship between electron density topology and binding energy. Another line of research focuses on nano-objects for applications in magnetism and catalysis (hydrogen production).

The research of the group is devoted to a fundamental understanding of the physical, chemical, structural and electrical properties of surfaces and interfaces as well as processes taken place or emerging at them due to their low dimensionality. Our experimental approach spans a wide range of research areas including organic/inorganic interfaces, molecular self-assembly and the study of novel growth processes and interfacial phenomena.

The Supercritical Fluids and Functional Materials (SFFM) group is led by Research Professor C. Domingo and Senior Scientist A. López-Periago, with the addition of Dr. Ayllón (UAB), as well as a PhD technician and PhD students. The achievement of two European projects, several projects from the National Plan, in addition to the budget obtained through public-private collaboration (Carburos Metálicos), have allowed the creation of a supercritical fluids laboratory within ICMAB, necessary to meet the objectives of the SFFM group.

The Reproductive Physiology and Environmental Epigenetics group includes the Group of Biology of Reproduction (GBR), established in 1997 and led by Francesc Piferrer, and the group of Molecular Endocrinology of Spermatogenesis (MES), established in 2022 and led by François Chauvigné. Our main goal is to do research on the reproductive physiology of fishes, focusing on sex determination and differentiation, and the regulation of sperm production and male function. We aim to understand both the internal and the environmental influences on these key processes for species survival.

The principal aim of the group is to explore the effects of stressors and forcing processes on marine ecosystems with special attention to marine living resources and human activities. The group began in 1993 as a Research Group of Consolidated Quality of the Autonomic Government of Catalunya. Since then, the group has grown steadily by training Ph.D. students that later were contracted under various Spanish and European research programs such as Ramon y Cajal, Marie Curie, Juan de la Cierva, and JAE, and/or became CSIC permanent employees.

Marine ecosystems, their populations and habitats are affected by a wide array of factors, both of natural (environmental changes, seasonality, natural hazards) and anthropogenic (fishing activity, habitat loss, climate change) origin. The group mission is to provide the scientific basis for the sustainable use and conservation of the marine living resources and their habitats.