The government of Catalonia has published in the Diari Oficial de la Generalitat de Catalunya the approving of Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR) as a university research institute affiliated to the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). The affiliation constitutes a mutual benefit and promotes synergies between both institutions.

The new status will also foster research and research skills, knowledge transfer, optimization of resources and infrastructures, as well as will increase third grade studies (masters, PhDs programmes and continuing education).

With the new status the Institute will launch the Master Degree in Translational Biomedical Research in 2014-2015. The aim of the master is to generate excellent young researchers by providing them with the necessary combination of scientific and medical knowledge and skills to contribute successfully to the future of translational medical research.

The master is addressed to research career, providing access to a PhD programme, related to the biomedicine area that they had previously chosen for the training programme and internship. At the end of the course, students must be able to understand the methodological, regulatory, logistical and ethical aspects of translational and clinical research, to design experiments using methodological tools and bioinformatics resources, to identify the opportunities to transfer results to industry, and to acquire strong knowledge and critical vision of the main challenges faced by medical researchers.