The Community of Madrid is committed to continue promoting the IMDEA institutes

The Community of Madrid has shown its pride for the Institutos Madrileños de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) in light of the relevant data registered from their foundation between 2006 and 2007. Regional government’s vice president, Ignacio Aguado, has expressed to media his compromise to keep on powering these seven scientific research and innovation centers with a high international prestige (Software, Energy, Networks, Materials, Water, Nanoscience and Food).

17 January 2020

The Community of Madrid has shown its pride for the Institutos Madrileños de Estudios Avanzados (IMDEA) in light of the relevant data registered from their foundation between 2006 and 2007. Regional government’s vice president, Ignacio Aguado, has expressed to media his commitment to keep on powering these seven scientific research and innovation centers with a high international prestige (Software, Energy, Networks, Materials, Water, Nanoscience and Food).

Currently, the 726 people who work in the R&D projects of the seven IMDEA registered in 2019 a volume of activity of 41.4 million euros, an amount coming a 50% from Community of Madrid´s financing and the other from external funds. The centers attract this additional financing in competitive public calls, international, statewide and regionals, as well as through contracts with companies.

Collaboration with leading companies

Since its setting up IMDEA Institutes have developed 1.427 R&D projects and executed 556 contracts with companies. Their field of activity is international, since they maintain collaborations with companies around the world. Thus, international entities as Google, Microsoft, Airbus, Boeing, Aerospace or Oxford University and national as Telefonica, Acciona, Repsol, Abengoa or Antolín, have relied on the high training of IMDEA researchers to collaborate in their R&D projects.

Furthermore, the institutes receive European funds from the H2020 Program, the current multiannual framework R&D and Innovation EU aids, which finances projects in many different thematic areas. From 2014 to 2019, they have managed to obtain 30 million euros assigned to 50 H2020 projects (in 24, they take part as leaders of the international consortium under which the activities are developed). On the other hand, the 38 patents already granted to IMDEA, added to the 32 that are currently requested, are a result of this outstanding interaction between research and business, typical of these R&D Madrid centers.

High international prestige

IMDEA Institutes are placed in prominent places in international research rankings. In the case of IMDEA Networks, in telecommunications network computing and mobile computing, it is at the level of prestigious international centers, such as ETH Zurich or University of Cambridge.

It must be pointed out that, since their foundation, researchers from the seven Madrid institutes have managed to publish 4,700 scientific articles in high-impact international journals, which have been cited 54,000 times by other researchers.