ICREA, Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies, is a foundation jointly promoted by the Catalan Government through the Ministry of Innovation, Universities and Enterprise, and the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation (FCRI). ICREA was created in response to the need to seek new hiring formulas that would make it possible to compete with other research systems on a similar if not an equal footing. ICREA’s aim is to recruit top scientists for the Catalan R&D system, scientists capable of leading new research groups, strengthening existing groups, and setting new lines of research on the right track. ICREA is an institution without walls. To achieve its objectives it works closely with Catalan universities and research centres based in Catalonia by means of long-term agreements that allow ICREA researchers to integrate in research groups within these universities and centres. ICREA plans to keep offering new research positions each year and to continue helping increase research in Catalonia. Cooperation, international openness and excellence are ICREA’s hallmark. In its eigth years of activity, ICREA has hired a total of 222 researchers in different areas of research: 32,5% in life and medical sciences, 27% in experimental sciences and mathematics, 10% in social sciences, 13,5% in different fields of humanities and 17% in technology.