New Publication
IFAE COVID-19 Group Publishes Final Study on Catalonia’s Pandemic Response in Scientific Reports
January 7, 2025
IFAEThe IFAE COVID-19 group has published the final results of an I+D+I project funded under the AGAUR PANDÈMIES-2020 programme, which developed a powerful stochastic simulation framework to assess the impact of COVID-19 in Catalonia. Using detailed demographic and mobility information together with extensive health datasets, the study published in Nature Scientific Reports quantifies the effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination, providing an evidence-based framework to evaluate pandemic response strategies.
This publication is the final outcome of the coordinated research project “A powerful stochastic tool to assess the impact of the COVID-19 in Catalonia integrating detailed demographic and mobility data”, funded by AGAUR in the call PANDÈMIES-2020. The project is led by IFAE (M. Bosman as Principal Investigator) in coordination with the Centre d’Estudis Demogràfics (CED) and the Foundation for Advanced Digital Technologies (i2CAT).
When the COVID-19 pandemic started, the consortium launched a multidisciplinary research effort integrating epidemiological information with demographic structure and mobility patterns. The IFAE team contributing to this project includes L. Gabbanelli, M. Manera, M. Martinez, P. Masjuan, Ll. Mir, I. Riu and V. Vitagliano.
Leveraging disaggregated socio-demographic microdata, mobile phone mobility data and large health datasets, the researchers developed a comprehensive agent-based network model of the Catalan population. Through large-scale numerical simulations covering the period 2020–2021, the model reproduces the historical evolution of the pandemic and allows a quantitative assessment of the population-level impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions and vaccination campaigns. The figure illustrates the agreement between simulated results and observed epidemiological data for Catalonia.
Beyond its retrospective analysis, the work provides a methodological framework that can be adapted to future public health emergencies. By integrating detailed demographic information and mobility data, the model supports evidence-based evaluation of intervention strategies and their potential impact at population scale.
An Agent-Based Simulation of COVID-19 History in Catalonia Using Extensive Real Datasets
M. Bosman, Y. Cordon, M. Duran-Sala, L. Gabbanelli, C. García-Pérez, X. Jordan, M. Manera, P. Masjuan, A. Medina, Ll. M. Mir, A. Oròs, and V. Vitagliano
Outreach programmes
IFAE brings fundamental physics closer to young students through its 2026 summer programmes
July 23, 2026
Throughout June and July, IFAE welcomed around 100 secondary-school and university students through a series of educational and research programmes designed to bring young people closer to fundamental physics and scientific research.
Event
IFAE's Severo Ochoa programme brings jazz, history and physics together in a sold-out public event
July 10, 2026
A sold-out audience of around 300 people gathered for ‘Sota l’eclipsi: jazz i física de l’univers’, an outreach event supported by IFAE’s Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence programme. Bringing together history, fundamental physics and live jazz, the evening explored how eclipses have transformed our understanding of the Universe while highlighting the dialogue between scientific discovery and artistic creation.