The Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) visited the CABD on May 2013 to assess the performance of the Centre as a whole and of the individual groups as fundamental components of the CABD. These external reviews take place every 5 years (the previous one was held in 2008) and they constitute an essential element of the strategy that the CABD has designed in its quest to become a recognized international Developmental Biology research centre.
The overall impression of the SAB is that the CABD is achieving high standards of scientific research. While there still is room for improvement, especially in the "international recognition and funding and in the impact of the CABD's results", the board congratulated the CABD members for "their ongoing success". The SAB members "recognize the collaborative and supportive spirit of the institute" and acknowledge the effort that its members have put to make the CABD an exciting place to do science. They also express their concern "that the scientific activity of the institute might suffer in the short term from the temporary freeze by the Spanish Government" in research funding.
To "foster the Integration of developmental and cell biology". The SAB "recommends that the institute regards itself as an institute of developmental and cell biology".
To establish a PhD program to "increase the quality of the students and their training" and "to contribute to overcome the separation between the two [Development and Cell Biology] areas".
To implement a mentorship programme for postdoctoral researchers working at the CABD.
To approve the appointment of Dr. Rafael R. Daga and Dr. Fernando Govantes as Principal Investigators. In addition, the SAB encourage Dr. Nacho Ibeas to apply for a Principal Investigator position within the CABD.
To allocate one long-term/permanent contract for a specialized technician to each of the following core services: the Functional Genomics Platform and the Proteomics Platform.