The Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE) is a research centre working to understand the evolutionary mechanisms that generate biodiversity and promote its conservation.

Founded in 2008, the IBE is a joint centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) that gathers more than 120 people, distributed across five scientific programmes to study evolution from a multidisciplinary approach. 

The IBE will house its research staff at the new headquarters of the Antic Mercat del Peix, where it will consolidate and expand its research project on evolution and biodiversity.

The new building of the Antic Mercat del Peix will house its research staff -who currently work at two centres- in a new, larger headquarters that will enable it to strengthen its lines of research, which are: 

—To discover life

To contribute to the knowledge of all life forms that have inhabited the planet, from the first common ancestor to current species, through an integrative approach combining morphological and ecological data and state-of-the-art techniques in genomics. 

—To decipher evolution

To comprehend the evolutionary history of living beings and identify the evolutionary and ecological processes that have shaped them to improve the future of life on the planet. 

—To preserve biodiversity

To curb the massive loss of biodiversity through cutting-edge interdisciplinary research in the fields of genomics, ecology and complex systems.

At its new headquarters, the IBE will continue to work towards achieving an informed and critical society committed to global challenges, such as the massive loss of biodiversity, climate change and the emergence of pandemics.