FUNDACION IKERBASQUE-IKERBASQUE FUNDAZIOA

Their core work

Ikerbasque is the Basque Foundation for Science, a talent attraction and research excellence agency based in Bilbao. Its core mission is recruiting and supporting international researchers — from postdoctoral fellows to senior scientists — to strengthen the Basque Country's research ecosystem. Beyond talent management, Ikerbasque researchers contribute specialist expertise to EU collaborative projects in fields like aquatic biodiversity and logistics optimization. The foundation acts as an institutional host and career development platform, channeling competitive EU funding (notably MSCA-COFUND) to bring top scientific talent into Basque research institutions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Ikerbasque's H2020 trajectory shows a clear shift from contributing specialist knowledge to EU collaborative research towards leading its own large-scale talent attraction programme. In the early period (2015–2021), its researchers participated as third-party experts in environment and transport projects like AQUACROSS and LOGISTAR. By 2022, the foundation stepped into a coordinator role with WOLFRAM2, a substantial MSCA-COFUND grant focused entirely on postdoctoral recruitment, mobility, and interdisciplinary training — signalling a strategic move to institutionalize its talent pipeline through EU funding.

Ikerbasque is consolidating its identity as a researcher mobility hub, likely to pursue further MSCA and capacity-building funding to scale its postdoc attraction programmes across disciplines.

How they like to work

Ikerbasque operates primarily as a third-party contributor in large consortia, lending its affiliated researchers' expertise to projects led by others. Its single coordinator role (WOLFRAM2) is in talent mobility — a domain where it holds institutional authority. With 32 unique partners across 14 countries from just 3 projects, it connects to broad European networks, suggesting its researchers are well-embedded in diverse international collaborations rather than locked into a narrow cluster.

Despite only 3 H2020 projects, Ikerbasque has connected with 32 unique partners across 14 countries, reflecting the large consortium sizes typical of RIA projects and the international nature of its MSCA-COFUND mobility programme.

What sets them apart

Ikerbasque is not a traditional research centre — it is a science policy instrument designed to attract and retain research talent in the Basque Country. This makes it a distinctive partner: rather than offering lab capacity or technical infrastructure, it provides access to a curated network of international researchers across multiple disciplines. For consortium builders, partnering with Ikerbasque means tapping into a talent pool and a regional ecosystem that actively supports researcher mobility and career development.

Highlights from their portfolio

• WOLFRAM2
  Largest project (EUR 3.97M) and only coordinator role — a flagship MSCA-COFUND postdoctoral fellowship programme running until 2027.
• AQUACROSS
  Contributed biodiversity and social-ecological modelling expertise to a major EU policy-oriented project on aquatic ecosystem management.