The demographics of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park have just been published, as is customary at this time of year. The report analyses the population of the PRBB in 2024, classifying it by centres, nationality and age, among other parameters, and compares it with that of previous years.
In total, there are 1667 people working in the seven research centres and the consortium. The number rises to 1826 if external staff are included. This represents an increase of about 7% over the previous year.
Crushing the scissors effect
For the first time, women* account for 51% of the principal investigators (PIs) compared to 49% of men. This figure reinforces the trend seen in previous years. In 2021, women accounted for 40% of the PI staff and in 2023, 45%. This means that the famous ‘scissors effect’, whereby men occupy the top positions in the research career despite being in the minority or having parity in the lowest positions, is closing in the PRBB.
In other staff categories, women also have a large presence. They account for 50% of post-doctoral research staff, 59% of doctoral students, 65% of technical staff and 69% of administrative staff. In general, the female-male ratio remains at the 60/40 of previous years.
Gathering of cultures
The PRBB is fully multicultural. 33% of its staff is from outside Spain. In total, there are 552 people from 70 different countries. The most represented nation is Italy, which provides 20% of the PRBB’s foreign staff with 111 people. It is followed by Germany (56 people) and France (40 people).
Europe is therefore the continent with the largest presence in the PRBB. However, the other continents also appear in the demographics. From the Americas, including North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean, there are 110 people. The United States (22), Argentina (18), Mexico (16) and Canada (11) are the American countries with the most workers in the PRBB. From Asia, there are 51 people. Most are from India (17), Turkey (8) and Pakistan (6). There are also people from Africa (13) coming mainly from Morocco (4), Kenya (2) and Nigeria (2). Finally, from Oceania, there is only Australian representation with two people working in the park.
The ratio of national and foreign staff remains the same to previous years, both at the park and each centre. 68% of the staff at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory – Barcelona (EMBL – Barcelona) are from outside Spain. However, in absolute numbers, it is the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) that provides the most foreign staff with 240 people, almost half of its staff.
Young people, above all
As in last year’s report, the majority of PRBB staff are young: 50% are under 35, with the 26-35 age group being the most populated with 677 people. The ratio falls steadily with increasing age, with only 11% of the staff being over 55 years old.
In terms of jobs, there is the same proportion of technical, administrative and senior research staff as last year. The number of doctoral students is slightly up. However, the number of postdocs is down slightly and is the only one to lose population in absolute numbers, from 248 in the last report to 238 in this one.
Finally, the CRG and the Hospital del Mar Research Institute remain the two largest centres in the PRBB, accounting for more than half of all employees in the park. They are followed by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra which with the two sections that are in the PRBB, the Department of Medicine and Life Sciences (MELIS-UPF) and the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE:CSIC-UPF), employs 20% of all the park’s staff. The smaller centres are the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) (13%) and the EMBL (4%). In addition, this year the Pasqual Maragall Foundation is also included in the report, with three people working at the park.
You can see the full report through this link.
* our demographic data only refers to binary sex information that comes from official documents, since we do not have non-binary information on sex or information on gender. Therefore, when we refer to ‘women’ we mean people of the feminine sex.
