Koplowitz’s donation was the first step in establishing the Esther Koplowitz Center – a €60m biomedical research centre representing a public-private partnership with the European Union, the Spanish government, and the regional government of Catalonia. Spain’s Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, a scientist herself, said at the opening, ‘This [funding model] is an example to be followed in Spain, where science philanthropy and private-public partnerships are still very new.’
The Esther Koplowitz Center, opened on 4 October 2010 and is set to be the icon of Barcelona’s burgeoning biomedical hub. Spain, despite suffering from one of the worst recessions in the eurozone will not be making drastic cuts to its science sector unlike other European countries such as the UK, where talk about 25% cuts have caused worries about a brain drain in leading UK scientists.
The donation by Koplowitz, the principal shareholder in the Spain-based company FCC, has been hailed as one of the largest private donations ever made by an individual in Europe in the field of biomedical research. Koplowitz’s gift adds to a total of €90m that she has contributed to social care and medical research projects over the past 15 years. Professor Andreu Mas-Colell, Secretary General of the European Research Council, the EU’s science funding agency, noted that progress in biomedical research in Spain risks ‘going backwards… and will not be sustainable unless private support comes to the rescue and significant private-public partnerships emerge.’
The state-of-the-art Center will be one of the first disease-oriented biomedical research centers in Spain and one of the few centers in the world to be physically connected to a prominent hospital - the Hospital Clínic Barcelona. It will also be linked to IDIBAPS – one of the leading European institutes in scientific output. The Center will facilitate research into some of the most pressing diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and malaria among others. Once fully operational it will host around 400 researchers and house one of Europe’s largest biobanks containing over a million samples to facitiliate research.
Esther Koplowitz
Esther Koplowitz is ranked #488 on the Forbes list of Billionaires. She is Vice-President, board member and principal shareholder of the Spanish environmental services and infrastructure giant and Fortune 500 listed company Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, (FCC), parent company of the UK’s two leading waste management companies – Waste Recycling Group and Focsa. Vice President and board member of French multinational – Veolia Environment. Founder and Chairwoman of the Foundation, which bears her name, Esther Koplowitz funds the Foundation in its entirety, personally sets its strategy and oversees the various projects in which it is involved. For a downloadable video and transcript in English about Esther Koplowitz’s philanthropic work, including quotes from prominent Spanish politicians, please visit: http://www.fcc.es/fcc/corp/ing/o_vfek.htm.
The Esther Koplowitz Center will be managed as part of IDIBAPS – the leading scientific research institute in Spain and among the top ten in Europe. Funds from the European Union (ERDF), the regional government of Catalonia and the Spanish government as well as funds from other foundations and institutes were also allocated to the Esther Koplowitz Center. The Center will have seven floors (9.000 square meters) and three basement levels (5.000 square meters).
Barcelona as a biomedical hub
Over the past five years, Barcelona has developed into a key location for biomedical research in Europe through the creation of half a dozen biomedical centers. According to Spain’s Minister for Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, Spain has moved to ninth place from thirtieth place in the world’s ranking of scientific powers in just a recent.
