BSC-CNS has been awarded with a "Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence" status. The Severo Ochoa programme seeks to boost research activities taking place in specific institutional and organizational environments in which a scientific community works closely together to achieve common objectives, facilitating interaction among its members and at the same time showing a high degree of openness to international collaboration. It is aimed at existing centres and units that perform cutting-edge fundamental research and are among the world's best in their respective areas. The impact and international scientific leadership of these centres and units is essential for their recognition.
Every year the Severo Ochoa (SO) programme at BSC provides financial support for outgoing mobility for BSC staff and incoming mobility of researchers of up to a maximum of € 2000 per person. The mobility grants are given to support collaborative research between institutions and are targeting exchanges between 1 and 3 months in length
In the first 3 years of the program (2012-15) 60 mobility grants were awarded and exchange was supported with leading research institutions in 18 countries. As result of this collaboration were published 59 papers on international conferences and in journals, and 26 long term collaboration lines were established or strengthen.
In the 2nd period of the programme (2015-2019) 124 mobility grants were awarded (52 outgoing and 72 incoming)