Development of new inorganic functional materials and tuning of selected properties through the modification of the chemical composition by anion substitution and of the microstructure. The activities are focused in three important groups of materials with recent interest: functional nitride-based materials, inorganic battery materials and electrolytes, carbon nanomaterials and inorganic nanostructures.

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 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.

The Barcelona Center for Subsurface Imaging (Barcelona-CSI) is formed by a Group of Earth Sciences researchers with a high degree of interdisciplinarity. Each senior member is an expert in 2-3 lines of research. The group is formed by Doctors and graduates in geology, geophysics and physics. Few international scientific teams have a similar know-how that permits to embrace in a coordinated manner the lines of (1) methodological development, (2) acquisition, analysis and processing of field data, and (3) their interpretation.

Our goal is to advance the knowledge of the marine pelagic ecosystem, to promote innovative research and inform the society about the importance of protecting the health of the oceans, for the benefit of human health and well-being. Our research focuses on studying the structure and dynamics of plankton, their response to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances (global warming, stratification, acidification, turbulence, atmospheric deposition, continental runoff, pollution -including plastics-) and their role in the cycling of key chemical elements in the ocean.

The group conducts research projects related to the factors and mechanisms that determine the resilience of marine benthic ecosystems face to the global change impacts. To this end the group adopted a multidisciplinary ranging from taxonomy and systematics, to species biology, structure and dynamics of populations and communities, both benthic and planktonic, and the relationship of biological processes with environmental factors.

BGQM focuses the research in the biogeochemical ocean cycles and land-ocean exchanges of nutrients and trace elements (REE and PGE mainly) according to the rules proposed by GEOTRACES and Future Earth - Coasts international programs. BGQM scientists have studied Arctic estuaries of the White Sea, temperate Atlantic Galician Rias, Cantabrian Rivers and Tagus estuary, tropical and subtropical Pacific lagoons as Marabasco and Santa Magdalena (California) respectively, Chilean fjords and subtropical Indian estuaries, working in cooperation with other country scientists.

The main feature of this group is the multidisciplinary strategy to deal with ecological studies of marine organisms using complementary approaches. The studies conducted by this group are very broad, ranging from fishery-oceanographic surveys to experimentation in captivity, within a common framework: an ecosystem approach to marine resource assessment and management to ensure the conservation of biodiversity.

Research items: a) Chemistry and biochemistry of the constituents of the marine products and changes occurred during their storage and processing. b) Biomarkers of quality, safety and origin control. c) Diets design for aquaculture. d) Effect of the marine constituents on health: Analysis by employment of lipidomic and proteomic tools. e) Employment of new and advanced technological processes: Effect on quality, safety and sensory acceptance of marine food. f) Sustainable use of natural resources: By-products and new commercial species