Research

Alberto Sangiovanni Vincentelli, a Professor at the University of California in Berkeley, was presented the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies for “radically transforming” the design of chips that power today’s electronic devices, leading to “the modern semiconductor industry.”

The Nobel Prizes 2023 have honored the work of five researchers who were previously distinguished by the BBVA Foundation with its Frontiers of Knowledge Awards. The judging committee of these prizes —awarded by the BBVA Foundation for the past 15 years— has shown an ability to get ahead of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, thereby making the Frontiers of Knowledge awards a reliable herald of international scientific excellence. On no fewer than 26 occasions, winners of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards have gone on to win a Nobel Prize a few years or even just months later.

The BBVA Foundation has awarded the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Economics, Finance and Business Management category to Ben Bernanke, Mark Gertler, Nobuhiro Kiyotaki and John Moore for their fundamental contributions to our understanding of how financial imperfections can amplify macroeconomic fluctuations and generate deep macroeconomic recessions. Their first works focused on a fundamental aspect that had not been addressed until then: the state of companies' balance sheets and its effect on their borrowing capacity and, therefore, their investment capacity.

The BBVA Foundation has awarded the Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Information and Communication Technologies to John Hennessy and David Patterson, founders of the new scientific area known as computer architecture, that designs the “brains” of computer systems. The awardees were the first to devise a conceptual framework that provides the field with a grounded approach to measuring performance, energy efficiency and the complexity of a computer.

The COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a global disruption that has severely impacted the world’s health, as well as a multitude of aspects of economic and social life. Since the beginning, the scientific community has embarked on the complex, multidisciplinary challenge of looking for solutions to the various areas that have been affected.

Francisco Herrera, Computer Science Professor at the University of Granada, is leading research that aims to diagnose COVID-19 in less than a second using chest x-rays. The project, which is in advanced stages, uses artificial intelligence as a tool to interpret biomedical images more effectively than the human brain. This technique would greatly help health clinics that do not have sophisticated diagnostic imaging systems.

Joaquín Dopazo is leading a project that uses a machine learning algorithm to identify proteins involved in the illness and cross match this information with a database of drugs used to treat other conditions. “We checked if some of the proteins detected are therapeutic targets of other medications approved for other uses, and we concluded that these treatments could act on the mechanisms that COVID-19 uses to cause harm,” says the researcher, who in 2018 won a BBVA Foundation team grant in the Big Data category.

Laura Lechuga, research professor at Spain's National Scientific Research Council (CSIC) and group leader in the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2), is heading up the ambitious CoNVaT project. CoNVat aims to produce a rapid, inexpensive, and highly sensitive test for diagnosing COVID-19 from the first day of infection. “It won't only indicate if the virus is present or not, but it will also reveal its concentration. This is important because it gives an idea about how  advanced the infection is,” she explains. The new test should be ready in less than a year, in time for future waves of the pandemic.

The ‘RRSSalud’ project is researching the dynamics and types of fake news regarding coronavirus on social networks, thus helping to alleviate the negative effects of this health crisis. Coordinated by the researcher Ramón Salaverría, the initiative is part of the BBVA Foundation’s 2019 program to assist scientific research teams in economics and digital society. One of the first conclusions of the study has determined that one-third of current fake news stories refer to the health crisis contain health or scientific content.

Nearly two months after Spain declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus crisis, the population has slowly begun to adapt to the lifting of some lockdown restrictions amid lots of questions and fear of a new outbreak. In an initiative promoted by the BBVA Foundation, Dr. Jordi Vila, the Head of Microbiology Services at the Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, gave a videoconference for BBVA employees to answer some of these questions. Among his responses regarding how to return to work in a safe manner, he indicated that “massive testing would be ideal, but it’s impossible from a logistical standpoint,” in his opinion.

The anti-malaria medication has made headlines in recent weeks as a potential solution against coronavirus. How accurate are these news reports? "Hydroxychloroquine does have properties that could turn it into a new asset," says Elena Gómez-Díaz, a researcher at the Institute of Parasitology and Biomedicine ‘López-Neyra’ (IPBLN-CSIC) and recipient of a BBVA Foundation Leonardo Grant in 2017. The proven efficiency of hydroxychloroquine in malaria treatments could contribute to speeding up the development of a COVID vaccine.

Dr. Antoni Trilla, Head of the Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology Unit at Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, volunteered to hold a videoconference with BBVA’s employees in order to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about coronavirus: Can someone who is asymptomatic transmit the virus? Can it be transmitted through contact with pets? How long will the preventive measures last? Is it dangerous to take ibuprofen if you have coronavirus? When will there be a vaccine? Hospital Clinic of Barcelona has compiled all the information available on COVID-19 and in a project undertaken together with the BBVA Foundation, has made it available in a dedicated portal, PortalCLÍNIC.

The European Research Council has presented one of its most prestigious research grants to  Stephen Hansen, an Associate Professor of Economics and researcher at the Imperial College of London, and previously at the University of Oxford. With this grant, Hansen will start a research project on big data together with BBVA Research.

Nonfinancial debt, specifically the relatively high ratio of business leverage, is drawing attention from economists working in policy and finance spheres, according to a recent publication by BBVA Senior Economist Filip Blazheski.

• U.S. is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), making its involvement in the fight against climate change a matter of critical importance.
• Efforts outside the federal government could enable the U.S. to fulfill two-thirds of its commitment to reduce GHG emissions.

"One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" was Neil Armstrong's famous phrase when he first stepped on the surface of the Moon. The phrase served to crown one of the greatest feats carried out by the human species whose 50th anniversary is celebrated this year.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a neurologic condition that causes people suffering from it to be dominated by anxiety and develop unwanted thoughts that they cannot get rid of. Researchers at the Universidad Carlos III are applying artificial intelligence techniques to detect which brain areas are affected by this disorder. Emilio Parrado, a data scientist at BBVA was one of the researchers that took part in the project and explains how machine learning can bring huge improvements to any activity, including finance.

The BBVA Foundation and the Spanish Royal Society of Physics presented their annual awards to promote scientific culture and recognize high quality research, innovation and the work of young physicists. During the ceremony, BBVA Foundation President Francisco González indicated that: “Physics is a science with an ability like none other to shape our vision of the world while transforming our environment through radical technological innovation.” Furthermore, the President of the BBVA Foundation was named a distinguished member of the scientific organization for “his genuine interest in fomenting science in general and physics in particular.”

After five years of existence, the Leonardo Grants have become a distinguished hallmark in Spain’s research and cultural communities with more than 300 grants awarded, totaling €10.5 million. For the first time, the BBVA Foundation has brought together many of its grant-winning researchers and cultural creators to announce Red Leonardo, an initiative to provide continuity and follow-up to the projects that were made possible by the BBVA grants. The grant program was created to give a boost to a community that had previously not been adequately addressed. Francisco González, president of the BBVA Foundation stressed the importance of innovation in science and culture as “the most powerful tool for addressing the substantial challenges of our time, on both an individual and community level.”

The versatility of its famous multi-use knives and the precision of its watches have given Switzerland the reputation of being one of the most innovative countries on the planet. The Alpine country has a long tradition of inventions that have helped improve our day-to-day lives. Inventions such as the ‘Rex’ vegetable peeler and the well-known coffee capsules show how Swiss talent has been able to adapt itself to society’s new needs and contribute to its development.

Campus BBVA is the BBVA Group’s corporate university. It’s a training center where the bank offers all its employees the content, platforms and tools they will need to learn about during the course of their professional careers.

BBVA’s Group Executive Chairman stressed the importance of mathematics as “the backbone of well-being in a global, technological society” at the BBVA Foundation and Royal Spanish Mathematical Society (RSME in Spanish) awards ceremony for the best young researchers.

Climate change is one of the greatest problems facing humanity. Abrupt temperature changes, famine, disease and floods are all evidence that changes in the climate are not a myth. The consequences could get worse if we do not manage to reduce the greenhouse effect, as Matthew Liao warns in his book The Next Step: Exponential Life. It can be downloaded at no charge  on BBVA’s website for the OpenMind project.

Under 30, entrepreneurs and digital. This are the common traits that define the young Europeans chosen by Forbes magazine in its '30 Under 30' list. A mobile navigation aide for the visually impaired, a meal kit delivery platform, a t-shirt that allows users to peek inside the human body, a nightlife finder in London... Many tech-related projects that deserve special attention.  Here we take a look at a few of them.

Edufin Summit 2017, the first annual meeting of the BBVA Center for Financial Education and Capability, has a packed agenda full of the sector’s latest trends. One of the most relevant topics at this summit will be behavioral economics, or in other words, how people’s behavior affects the economy.

The debates about potential impact of ageing for institutions and economies, the fiscal sustainability of the pension and welfare systems are based on a convention that was established one century ago: the definition of 65 years as the fixed threshold at which old age and economic dependency begins.

The Madrid-based startup Source{d} is developing an algorithm that analyzes millions of developers’ code to select those that best meet the needs of every company.

Under the media’s radar and away from the latest trends, the industry keeps making headway in its road to digitization. Much is being said about the importance of connecting all machines, the Internet of Things, but transformations will be far reaching and of all kinds.

Francisco González, Group Executive Chairman of BBVA, presented the book The Next Step: Exponential Life in an event held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  This work collects the insights of twenty of the world’s most authoritative voices in a number of fields, analyzing the tremendous opportunities – and the risks and uncertainties – that the so-called “exponential technologies” will bring to humanity

The UN has declared February 11th the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to promote female scientists and engage women in engineering, research, mathematics and technology. In celebration of this day, BBVA explains its passion for numbers in hopes of inspiring new generations.