On the occasion of the VHIR Board of Trustees meeting, the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells and other trustees, accompanied by the VHIR Management, visited the work on the new research building, now at a very advanced stage, permitting a visit of the future facilities for the lab and administration spaces.

Jordi Badia and Jero Gutiérrez, architects from BAAS, provided the technical explanation of the building and development of the work. The study BAAS Arquitectura/Espinet Ubach won the architectural competition to build the new VHIR research building.

The new building will cover an area of 16,792 m2, with 5,569m2 for research laboratories, doubling the current space available for research. The new building will also house a cyclotron, which will permit the development of new radio isotope-based tools for diagnosis and treatment, a rapidly expanding field internationally in which the Vall d’Hebron is already a leading figure, and state-of-the-art technology for advanced therapies, especially gene therapy.

The first VHIR Board of Trustees meeting for 2023, which was chaired by the Minister of Health, Manel Balcells, was attended by Joan Gómez Pallarès, member and managing director of Research; Assumpció Malgosa Morera, member and vice-rector of Research at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Albert Salazar, member and manager of Vall d’Hebron University Hospital; Montserrat Llavayol Giralt, member and assistant general director of Research and Innovation in Health; Manuel Armengol Carrasco, member and coordinator of the Hospital Vall d’Hebron Teaching Unit; Mònica Rodríguez Carballeira, member and Teaching director at Vall d’Hebron University Hospital; Josep Tabernero Cartula, member, head of the Vall d’Hebron Medical Oncology Department and director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and Roser Angles Coll, from Hospital Healthcare Management.
The issues addressed during the Board of Trustees meeting included a report on scientific activity, the state of achievement of the 2022 goals and the proposal for the 2023 goals, approval of the proposed member appointments for the Internal Science Council (ITC) and also the members and Chair of the External Science Council (SAB).

Following this, a review was carried out of the issues and agreements discussed in the Executive Committee meeting on 1 June, 2023 and the part on “compliance”, such as implementation of the VHIR Internal Information System to meet the obligation established in Law 2/2023, of 20 February, regulating the protection of people who report regulatory offences and the fight against corruption.

Regarding the General Manager’s Report, the financial report was presented to close the 2022 financial year and monitoring up to April 2023; the Audit Report on the annual accounts for the 2022 financial year (financial report, balance sheet and income statement), and the 2022 budget settlement and proposal for surplus allocation, and the Audit Office Final Report.

Lastly, the situation regarding the new VHIR research building as well as proposals for the future were discussed.