1. A paper that converts waste heat into electricity produced at ICMAB (30 Jan 2019)
2. Urea substitutes noble metal catalysts for the photodegradation of organic pollutants (22 Feb 2019)
3. Antibacterial biopolymer patches to protect and heal plant wounds (5 March 2019)
4. Perovskite solar cells: The interface makes the difference (12 April 2019)
5. A general quantum-mechanical method to address spatial dispersion effects: flexoelectricity and dynamical quadrupoles (13 June 2019)
6. Tailored made materials solely by changing the arrangement of the atoms (26 June 2019)
7. Lead halide perovskites are not ferroelectric:  (15 July 2019)
8. X-rays find key insights in metal-oxide thin film interfaces (19 July 2019)
9. The ICMAB receives one ERC PoC Grant for enabling high-temperature superconducting technologies (25 July 2019)
10. Researchers from the Nanomol Group initiate contacts with the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) to bring a new treatment against venous leg ulcers to clinical practice (26 July 2019)
11. Superconductors instead of copper for the future circular collider (FCC) at CERN (31 July 2019)
12. Towards an all-electrical control of heat flux for zero-power "electronics“ (13 Novembre 2019)
13. First identification of a brown aerinite, the typically known blue pigment of the Romanesque Catalan art (2 Dec 2019)
14. The role of manganese in providing high power capacity in lithium-ion batteries (5 Dec 2019)
15. A multidisciplinary research team develop biotransistors able to hear small beats of live (10 Dec 2019)
16. Carbon nanocapsules for radiotherapy against cancer (18 Dec 2019)

This is a project with FECYT and Severo Ochoa funding, in collaboration with Esciencia (Zaragoza), and with the participation of many ICMAB researchers. The idea is to represent the 5 RL in 5 superheroes, each of them with superpowers that represent the amazing properties of the materials of the future in the fields of energy (Fotoenergy), superconducting materials (Superconductor), magnetic materials and oxides (Magnon), molecular electronics (ElectroWoman) and biomaterials (BioNanoCapsule).

The project has its own website, with a media section, a photo gallery and a blog with all the news and events. The project received funding in the 2019-2020 FECYT call to continue its expansion.

During 2019, the following highlights happened:

• The #Matheroes at the Sagrada Família Library (Barcelona) (10 Des 2018 – 7 Jan 2019)
• The #Matheroes at the Ponent Library (Sabadell) (1 Feb – 8 April 2019)
• The #Matheroes at the Vapor Badia Library (Sabadell) (7 Oct – 22 Nov 2019)
• Anna Laromaine and the #Matheroes on the TV show ¡Qué animal! (La2 RTVE) (5 Oct 2019)
• The #Matheroes on YouTube thanks to SizeMatters! (15 June 2019, more than 16,000 views)

"A researcher in your classroom" is a programme from ICMAB that brings our reserachers to primary and secondary highschools, breaking the barrier between the students and scientists.

This initiative started ten years ago and received the Outreach Project Award of the E-MRS Spring Meeting in 2014, brings every year many volunteer researchers to the classrooms of different centers, and become for one day "ambassadors of the nanoscience and nanotechnology" for the young ones. The initiative aims at approaching the new materials to the students, but also to encourage scientific vocations, break the walls between the school classrooms and the research centers, and let the researchers meet the future generations of scientists. Is is both a gratifying experience for students, teachers and researchers.

• Anna Laromaine in La Tordera highschool (Santa Maria de Palautordera) (6 Feb 2019)
• Judith Morlà in Escola Sant Medir (Barcelona) (26 Sept 2019)
• Andrés Gómez in Escola Pia (Sabadell) (26 Sept 2019)
• Arántzazu González in Col·legi Sagrada Família Horta (Barcelona) (13 Nov 2019)
• Pau Molet in Salle Bonanova (Barcelona) (13 Nov 2019)
• Imma Ratera INS Joaquima Pla i Farreras (Sant Cugat) (14 Nov 2019)
• Ángel Pérez in IES Miquel Taradell (Barcelona) (14 Nov 2019)
• Judith Morlà in INS Pau Claris (Barcelona) (14 Nov 2019)
• Núria Aliaga in EINA, Centre Universitari de Disseny i Art de Barcelona (Barcelona) (19 Nov 2019)

The students who join us, spend some weeks doing a research project within one of our research groups.

• Joves i Ciència (Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera) (3 students for one month: Carla París, Teresa Echevarría and Benet Fité)
• Programa Argó UAB (6 students for 3 weeks: Irene Moreno, Albert Fusté, Judit Villegas, Ferran Monforte, Marta Angulo and Núria Pifarré)
• Students from the Societat Catalana de Química (2 students for 2 weeks: Nerea Parada and Helena Pérez)

This programme allows us to receive the visit of highschool students who spend a morning with us for a science talk and visit to some of our laboratories.

• Istituto Italiano Statale Comprensivo, Barcelona (5è Primària) “Converteix-te en un detectiu de materials!” (Anna Crespi i Judith Oró) (17 Jan 2019)
• Centre d’Estudis Roca, Barcelona (1r BTX) “Els materials del futur per energia!” (Mariano Campoy) (1 Feb 2019)
• IPSI, Barcelona (4t ESO) “Els materials del futur per electrònica!” (Ferran Macià) (22 Feb 2019)
• Escola Mestre Morera, Barcelona (6è Primària) “Converteix-te en un detectiu de materials!” (Anna Crespi i Judith Oró) (18 March 2019)
• Escola Sarrià, Barcelona (2n Grau) “L'ICMAB i la seva recerca” (Xavier Obradors) (27 March 2019)
• Escola Montserrat (4t ESO) “Escala nano i nanomaterials” (Arántzazu González) (11 April 2019)
• Escola Pia, Granollers (4t ESO) “Els materials del futur per la nanomedicina!” (Nora Ventosa) (10 May 2019)
• Escola Marina, La Llagosta (1r BTX) “Els materials del futur per energia!” (Joffre Gutiérrez) (24 May 2019)
• Institut Can Mas, Ripollet (1r BTX) “Setmana de la Ciència a l’ICMAB” (Anna May) (12 Nov 2019)
• Institut Vallès, Sabadell (2n ESO) “Converteix-te en un detectiu de materials!” (Anna Crespi i Judith Oró) (14 and 15 Nov 2019)
• Escola Nou Patufet, Barri de Gràcia, Barcelona (3r ESO) “La taula periòdica i els minerals dels teu mòbil” (Anna Crespi i Judith Oró) (29 Nov 2019)
• Centre d'Estudis Dolmen, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat (1r-2n BTX) “Els nous materials per l'electrònica” (Josep Fontcuberta) (13 Des 2019)

This dramatized reading, prepared by a group of women from the ICMAB, explains the life and discoveries of some wise women of our history, to visibilize the role of women in science and encourage scientific vocations.

In 2019 the project received a “Cuenta la Ciencia” grant from the FGCSIC, which allowed the team to prepare a website and a promotional video, available on YouTube (with more than 500 views), to receive training by a professional actor (Santi Monreal), and to present the project in some conferences:

• Oral communication and poster presentation in the conference "Congrés Dones, Ciència i Tecnologia WSCITECH19" (6-7 March 2019, Terrassa).
• Poster presentation at the Symposium "Women and Physics" of the "Bienal de Física" organized by RSEF, GMEF (16 July 2019, Zaragoza).
• Poster presentation at the conference "Comunicación Social de la Ciencia 2019" (CCSC19) (9-11 Oct 2019, Burgos)

Also, during 2019, the following representations were done:

• Representation for L’Escoleta, Bellaterra – 6è Primària (13 Feb 2019)
• Representation for INS Infanta Isabel d’Aragó, Barcelona – 2n BTX (19 Feb 2019)
• Representation at Escola Els Pins, Sant Cugat – 5è/6è Primària (12 March 2019)
• Representation for the Alumni UB at the Universitat de Barcelona (29 April 2019)
• Representation for the European Researchers' Night in CosmoCaixa (27 Sept 2019)
• Science Week at the ICMAB with Escola Jaume Viladoms, Sabadell – 3r-4t ESO (11 Nov 2019)
• Science Week at the ICMAB with Institut Vallès, Sabadell – 2n ESO (14 and 15 Nov 2019)

• Talk “Nanotecnologia i transició energètica” by Xavier Obradors at CMES (4 Feb 2019)
• Students talk visit from the Festival Nanoscience and Nanotechnology 10alamenos9 (Marta Mas Torrent and Arántzazu González) (11 April 2019)
• Bojos per la física - Mad for physics (Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera) (8 June 2019) (25 students for one morning, piezoelectricity with Ignasi Fina and molecular simulation with Jordi Faraudo)
• The FUB+GRAN nanotechnology students from Manresa visit the ICMAB (Gerard Tobias, Xavier Obradors) (29 May 2019)
• Gervasi Herranz and the Quantum research performed at ALBA Synchrotron at the CCCB Quantum exhibition (12 June 2019)
• EU Energy Day at ICMAB: How to produce hydrogen with photonic crystals? By Jordi Llorca (17 June 2019)
• European Sustainable Energy Week: Intense colloquium at the "Energy of the future" roundtable (Vil·la Urània, 19 June 2019)
• Talk “Els nanomaterials per a la transició energètica" by Xavier Obradors at the RACAB (18 October 2018)

• Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Festival 10alamenos9: organized by many research centers and universities. Talks, seminars, workshops... around nanotechnology. (April 2019)
• YoMo - Youth Mobile Festival (26 Feb – 2 March 2019). The ICMAB was present at YoMo 2018, The Youth Mobile Festival.
• Exporecerca (28 Feb – 2 March 2019). The XX Edition of ExpoRecerca Jove 2019 took place within the YoMo. Anna May, from ICMAB, participated as member of the jury of the presented projects by the talented groups of students from all over the world.
• "Fira de Recerca en Directe" at CosmoCaixa with the Superconducting Materials Group, showcasing their research to highschool students and families (6-9 March 2019)
• “Espai Ciència al Saló de l'Ensenyament” (21 March 2018) with some workshops on superconductivity and magnetic levitation.
• Pint of Science Festival (22 May 2019). Mariona Coll, in Vic, and Esther Barrena and Laura López, in Sant Cugat, participated in this event to bring science closer to society in bars of many cities around the country.
• Barcelona Maker Faire (5-6 Oct 2019). On 5-6 Oct the ICMAB participated at the Barcelona Maker Faire with 3D Doodler printing nanostructures, with Andrés Gómez and Anna May.
• Festival Barcelona Ciència - Science Festival in Barcelona (26-27 Oct 2019). The ICMAB was at the 2019 Barcelona Science Fair, with a booth devoted to Organic Electronics with Núria Crivillers and Raphael Pfattner, microtalks (Judit Tomsen and Enrique Pascual), and debates (Periodic Table with Dolores Bueno, and Quantum applications with Gervasi Herranz)
• European Researchers’ Night (27-28 Sept 2019). The European Researchers' Night is celebrated throughout Europe on the last Friday of September, with the aim of bringing science, research and technology closer to the public. The ICMAB participated with some highschool talks on Friday morning, with a nanoscience workshop with the Nanomol Group and Speaker's Corner talks in CosmoCaixa on Friday evening (Josep Fontcuberta, Anna Roig and Martí Gich), and with 2 representations of "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers" in CosmoCaixa for more than 250 people on Friday evening.
• Expominer (8-10 Nov 2019).The ICMAB participated at the 41st edition of Expominer, the exhibition of minerals, fossils and jewelry, organized by Fira Barcelona, with some outreach talks given by two of our researchers (Rosario Núñez, Ana M. López), and workshops in our stand about the periodic table, materials and minerals properties (fluorescence, magnetism, conductivity…) (Anna Crespi, Judith Oró, Roberta Ceravola), in a stand shared with the ICTJA-CSIC, reaching more than 500 people.
• Setmana de la ciència - Science week (8-17 Nov 2019). The ICMAB received the visit of 4 schools, which amounted a total of 185 students. The students could attend the "Madame Châtelet and her Instagram followers", visit some of our labs and participate in the workshops about "Properties of the Minerals and Periodic Table Elements".

There is a 64 % increase in the number of users of our website, compared to 2018, and a 47 % increase in the number of sessions. Moreover, we have more users between 25 and 35 years old than what we used to have.

We are happy to announce that the ICMAB website was the most visible CSIC website in 2019, according to the “Research centers websites ranking”, keeping the same position than in 2018, out of a total of 138 CSIC websites.

In addition, a 58 % increase in followers has been observed in Instagram (>560), a 52 % increase in LinkedIn (>3200), and a 25 % increase in Twitter (>2926) and Facebook (>1600), compared to 2018. In addition, our YouTube channel received 20 % more views and ended 2019 with more than 100 subscribers. Also, many researchers and research groups have Twitter accounts, so the Materials Science, Physics and Chemistry community in this social network is quickly growing.

The weekly newsletter has more than 520 subscribers. In every newsletter we send the latest news from our website, plus the forthcoming events and seminars at the ICMAB or BNC-b cluster, job offers and conferences and meetings organized by our researchers. We have another mailing list only for our staff, and another one for students and young people who might be interested in starting out their research career with us.

This year we have organized:

• The International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February 2019) with a talk by Xavier Roqué about Lise Meitner and a talk by AMIT-CAT on a STEM initiative for schools.
• Book exchange and new bookmarks (Library and Scientific Equipment Platforms) for Sant Jordi (23 April 2019)
• EU Sustainable Energy Week (June 2019) with a seminar and school visit
• The Institute’s Anniversary Party (14 June 2019). We celebrated our 33rd anniversary with a morning full of activities (foot orienteering race, tennis table, ICMAB choir, Rubik’s cube workshop, poker, Party & Co. and chess tournements)
• FOTICMAB 2019 photo contest for our staff (April – June 2019). The “Nanoroses” was the winner of the contest, by Cristiano Matricardi.
• Open Access Week with a seminar on “Open Acess FAQS” by Alejandro Santos, our Librarian (23 Oct 2019)
• The Christmas party (19 December 2019) with the projection of the film “El Enigma Agustina” and a talk by historian and chemist Agustí Nieto-Galan on “Dreams of Modernity: Scientific Research and Cosmopolitanism in Spain 1900-1939”, followed by the ICMAB choir, and a buffet for everybody.

We have prepared institutional presentations and posters with information of our URLs, a catalogue and flyers of our activities and of our job opportunities. We continue with our welcome pack for our staff (old-timers and newcomers) consisting of a mug and a bag, and we added in 2019 a glass bottle, so all our staff can drink water from our fountains during the work day. We also have pens, notebooks, USBs and folders for our conferences and meetings. The Annual Report 2018 was also edited and created by the Communication & Outreach and IT Departments.