On Friday 9Th of May took place, at the Hotel Barceló Sants of Barcelona, the first Faculty Retreat of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR). From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. over 100 people (more than 90 PI plus the heads of the unit of support of the administrative structure) met to discuss the key issues of the present and the future of the Institute. The goal was, based on the conclusions of recent evaluations of the Scientific Expert Committee, from CERCA institution and the Health Institute Carlos III, to improve the scientific content of the present Strategic Plan 2011-2015 and establish the bases for the future Strategic Plan 2016-2020.The conference, led by VHIR's director, Dr. Joan Comella, and with the participation of Dr. José J. Navas, director of the University Hospital Vall d’Hebron (HUVH) for the closing speech, was organized into three thematic blocks: scientific activity, organization and instruments, and impact and results. Each block was coordinated respectively by Dr. Rafael Simó, vice-president of the Scientific Intern Committee (CCI), Dr. Joan Genescà, associate to clinical research, and Dra. Anna Meseguer, associate to basic research. Every block was divided into three working groups, supervised by the same coordinators with the help of Fatima Nuñez, head of the scientific and technical area. Each block discussed about these topics: SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY-Scientific Organization: areas and groups.-Relations with the HUVH, Catalan Heath Institute (ICS) and Primary Care.-Scientific career: emerging groups and young researchers. ORGANIZATION AND INSTRUMENTS -Scientific and technical services.-Infrastructures and sustainability.-Teaching and relations with the UAB. IMPACT AND RESULTS -Innovation.-Clinical research. -Relationships with the environment.The debate about each issue was based on what is said in the current Strategic Plan about them. In preparing this part of the meeting as well as with the methodological issues, played an important role Francesc Iglesias, who coordinated the preparation of the Plan 2011-2015. The sessions were lively and very participatory, with many diverse inputs and opinions, partly because each group had a mix of representative from different areas and scientific communities. From the result of the discussion of each session came up the proposal to carry out 60 actions of improvement. The final session, with all the attendees gathered again, served to introduce and vote each of the 60 improvement actions proposed which received an overwhelmingly favorable outcome. The management of VHIR undertakes to examine all proposals, summarize and prioritize actions.