Interview with Caterina Biscari, director of the ALBA Synchrotron, one of the most advanced scientific facilities in southern Europe
“Infrastructures like ours are essential for Europe’s strategic autonomy”
With a historic investment of 926 million euros, agreed on between the Generalitat and the Government of Spain to cover funding for the infrastructure until 2038, the ALBA Synchrotron has begun its transformation into a fourth-generation synchrotron light source, with a view to placing Catalonia and Spain at the forefront of world science up to 2050.
ALBA II is not just a scientific project; it is a strategic commitment to technological sovereignty, industrial innovation and attracting talent. It is also a new proposal to enable small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the bedrock of the Catalan industrial fabric – to make a qualitative leap in the production of cutting-edge systems.
We spoke with its director, Caterina Biscari, to understand what this leap means, its impact on the European economy and science, and how to build an infrastructure that seeks to address the major worldwide challenges: health, energy, materials and sustainability. The ALBA synchrotron also aims to play a strategic role in enabling SMEs to contribute to the technologies of the future and take advantage of its state-of-the-art facilities.
What does it mean for Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain to have a fourth-generation synchrotron light infrastructure? What are its uses?
Having a fourth-generation synchrotron light source puts us at the forefront of scientific and technological capabilities and provides a strategic tool for the country’s technological and social progress.
Synchrotrons are essential infrastructures for developing new materials, understanding complex biological processes and designing microchips. In today’s geopolitical context, the availability of this tool reduces dependencies and strengthens scientific and industrial autonomy.
What new scientific questions will ALBA II be able to answer?
ALBA II will give us the tools to address phenomena that we cannot yet explore. The resolution will improve by a factor of x10. In other words, the resolution level will be 10 times better than the current one, which will allow us to see things up to 10 times smaller. It will have a much brighter light beam (up to 100 times brighter, depending on the wavelength). It will also have a higher degree of consistency, which means greater precision in experimentation. We will have new lines of light that will delve deeper into most of these characteristics, as the extended wavelength improves instrument resolution. All this will be possible with new data infrastructures and new artificial intelligence-optimised methodologies.
Resolution will be up to 10 times better. Very weak signals that are currently undetectable will be visible thanks to the greater signal-to-noise ratio. It will be possible to work with smaller or diluted samples. Experiments will be conducted very rapidly, increasing the capacity to serve new communities. Similarly, different techniques and scales will be correlated to solve complex problems. Techniques such as coherent diffraction imaging (CDI) and ptychography will permit the study of fluctuations in materials under different environmental conditions and dynamic processes.
By way of example, these new capabilities will be essential in the study of biological processes, such as connectomics (the scientific field involved in the comprehensive mapping of neural connections in the brain), the study of diseases and the development of new therapies.
Naturally, delving into the nanometric world and working with more complex systems has a direct impact on the development of new generations of electronic devices, spintronics systems and quantum technologies.
What competitive advantage does the ALBA Synchrotron offer to the Catalan and Spanish productive fabric?
ALBA is a catalyst for innovation in companies, as it gives them access to unique analytical capabilities to improve their production processes.
Obtaining this information translates into faster development cycles, better product characterisation and greater innovative capacity. For industrial sectors, it means reducing risks in R&D and accelerating the market release of new solutions.
How does the ALBA Synchrotron collaborate with other European infrastructures such as MAX IV (Sweden), ESRF (France) and Diamond (United Kingdom)? What is ALBA’s position within the European and global ecosystem?
ALBA has a very strong position in Europe. Compared to other national institutions, the quality and quantity of its scientific production per instrument places it among the best in the world. We are a key player in LEAPS (the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources), of which I have been president and vice president for four years.
We have a very fruitful collaboration with these European and other international institutions. Furthermore, participation in European Community-funded projects is grounded in addressing shared challenges, such as the development of new accelerator technologies, data management and processing, sustainability and support for innovation for companies.
"ALBA is a catalyst for innovation in companies and aims to help SMEs contribute to the technologies of the future"
Which industrial sectors most benefit from the possibilities in R&D offered by ALBA? What kind of research uses the infrastructure you lead?
The number of sectors for which the ALBA Synchrotron provides support is increasing as we speak, so I will mention just a few.
The pharmaceutical sector is one that traditionally uses synchrotrons and was our first industrial user. Synchrotron light is used to determine the 3D structure of proteins, enzymes and biological receptors, for optimising formulations and controlled drug release. It is a powerful instrument for visualising how a drug binds to its molecular target and for tissue, cell and organ studies. Lastly, it helps in the formulation of patents. In short, it reduces costs and times, and increases the chances of success for new drugs.Another highly significant sector is that which includes energy materials and catalysts, such as batteries, solar panels, superconductors and green hydrogen. At ALBA, experiments can be carried out during operations, such as a catalytic reaction and the charging/discharging of a battery, and under real temperature and pressure conditions. Synchrotron light allows you to see materials in action, identify what works and why, and improve efficiency, selectivity and stability.
Given their strategic importance, it is also worth mentioning the chip and semiconductor sector and quantum technologies.Mention should also be made of its contribution to other fields, some of which have significant weight in the industrial fabric of SMEs, such as food, packaging materials and cosmetics.
How is collaboration with companies (pharmaceutical, energy, materials, automotive) structured? How can SMEs also benefit from this scientific infrastructure?
At ALBA, companies directly contact the Industrial Office, a team of scientific and technical staff that serves as a bridge between the companies’ needs and the instrumentation and services we provide. Industrial access is fast, all the confidentiality companies require is ensured and the relationship can be managed as a long-term collaboration or a one-off service.
After first contact, we analyse the challenges that the company puts before us and check our techniques to ensure they can adequately address the challenge, after which the experiment is carried out, in which we can also provide support for analysing the results.
There are also specific programmes for SMEs, funded through European projects, which provide them with initial free access to ALBA or other synchrotrons in the LEAPS network, enabling them to see the benefits of our techniques for their sector. This system, proposed by ALBA to the European Commission and coordinated by us in the LEAPS, has been very successful and the European Commission is considering expanding its impact in the future framework programme.
What economic return is expected from public investment? Have you conducted impact studies? What orders of magnitude are being considered?
Infrastructures such as ALBA generate a significant direct and indirect return. The latest ALBA II socioeconomic impact study shows that each euro invested has an annual social return of €1.5.
This return takes the form of innovation, company creation, attracting talent and improved industrial competitiveness. Such a return has a powerful medium- and long-term impact.
What role does ALBA play in the strategy of Barcelona and Catalonia as a European scientific hub? How many nationalities work at ALBA? How do you attract talent?
ALBA is a key player in the scientific ecosystem of Catalonia and Barcelona. It is a pole of attraction for international talent and a hub for collaboration with universities, research centres, hospitals and companies.
ALBA has a permanent staff of around 300, from over 20 different countries. To this should be added the teams of users who come each week to carry out experiments: 60% from institutions in Spain, 25% from Europe and 5% from the rest of the world. Last year, we had more than 3,800 visits from researchers.
Talent recruitment is a very important area, since our team is highly specialised and requires very advanced technical and scientific knowledge, so we draw on our international collaboration networks. We also provide key training programmes for university and vocational training students, through our annual internship programme or teaching activities in conjunction with a number of universities.
“The European chip of the future will be the product of a collaborative ecosystem in which the new InnoFAB semiconductor plant will play a key role”
The United States and China are locked in an unprecedented technological race. How does this situation affect technology transfer in the field of physics and synchrotron light? What is Europe’s position in this?
To a large extent, science is still a space for international collaboration, but it is true that in the current geopolitical situation the need to maintain strategic autonomy in Europe is increasingly evident, as Mario Draghi explained in his report on competitiveness. Europe, which is firmly committed to the free movement of knowledge, is increasingly aware that it needs to develop its own technologies in sectors essential to citizens’ well-being. Infrastructures such as ALBA are essential instruments in achieving this autonomy.
What does the collaboration agreement between ALBA and the HEPS project in China consist of?
HEPS is China’s first fourth-generation synchrotron light source. The agreement we signed between ALBA and HEPS is based on the scientific and technological collaboration between the two institutions. It permits exchange of personnel, organisation of symposia and congresses, and conducting joint experiments in synchrotron science. It marks a step forward in connecting science between continents, improving knowledge-sharing and boosting joint research capacity.
What challenges to management does an infrastructure of this scale involve?
Managing an infrastructure as complex as ALBA involves combining technical and scientific needs of the highest level with the economic and personnel management of the facility.
It requires meticulous long-term planning, for which government support is essential, as shown in our case by the recent approval of the budget until 2038.
And good internal coordination is required, as well as coordination with the user community and external collaborators.
¿Cómo evolucionará la relación entre sincrotrones, IA y computación? ¿Cuál es su relación con el Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)? ¿Quién diseñará el chip europeo del futuro?
Computing and AI are, today, among the main components of synchrotrons. Synchrotrons incorporate machine learning processes in conducting our experiments and designing accelerators. We generate huge volumes of data whose advanced analysis is possible thanks to AI methodologies.
Our relationship with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, with whom we share a number of characteristics ¬– as the institutions are two of the most outstanding unique scientific and technical infrastructures in the country – is evolving towards greater collaboration in terms of developing methodologies for data analysis and simulations, and participation in European programmes with different partners.
As for the European chip of the future, this will be the result of a collaborative ecosystem in which the new InnoFAB semiconductor plant – located next to the ALBA Synchrotron, thus allowing it to analyse chips at the nanometric scale – will play a key role, with the collaboration of infrastructures such as ALBA and other research centres working in material development and characterisation.