Joan Vives Tomas, new manager of IRBLleida

The Board of Trustees of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine of Lleida Dr. Pifarré Foundation (IRBLleida) has appointed Joan Vives Tomas, the new manager of the Institute. Joan Vives Tomas, who joins the Institute this January, has 16 years' experience in managing biomedical research institutes in Europe and Africa.

The new IRBLleida manager studied Technical Engineering in Terrassa, a Master's degree in Operations and Services Management at the School of Business Administration and Management (ESADE) at Universitat Ramon Llull in Barcelona, a postgraduate degree in International Development Studies at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and a Master's degree in Health Economics and Pharmaeconomics at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.

From 2013 until now, he has been the Director of Operations of the British Medical Research Council's Unit in The Gambia, associated with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, a multidisciplinary biomedical research institute with 1,500 professionals and a campus of 3 research centres. Previously, he worked as Deputy Head of the Research Support Office and as Economic and Financial Director of the Centre for International Health Research (CRESIB, now known as ISGlobal) and the Clinical Foundation for Biomedical Research.

The new IRBLleida manager's priorities for the coming years are

• To ensure the appropriate and efficient management of the research platforms and services offered to researchers.
• To continue working on the process of internationalization of the institution.
• To promote the professional development of our researchers and professional research support services.
• To work to improve the management of innovation projects.
• To boost the visibility of IRBLleida among our collaborators and to bring our activity closer to the public.

Vives replaces Reyes Grases, who was manager of IRBLleida for the last three years until July.