EIB President Nadia Calviño visits Barcelona, participates in BIST Forum 2026 and attends loan signing for social infrastructure

• At the BIST Forum 2026, the EIB Group President emphasised that Europe is a superpower in technology, trade and industry, and announced a future investment in technology developed by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia to produce sustainable building materials, with applications in areas like housing.
• During her visit to Barcelona, she attended the signing of a €50 million loan between the EIB and ICF (the Catalan Institute of Finance) to finance the construction and refurbishment of care homes, day centres and assisted living facilities for vulnerable groups.
• The EIB Group President also visited the facilities of Heura Foods, a leading startup in the development of 100% plant-based foods whose research and development programme has received €20 million in EIB financing.
• The EIB invested €2.2 billion in Catalonia in 2025, with one out of every four euros invested going to social infrastructure.

The President of the European Investment Bank Group (EIB Group) Nadia Calviño made an official visit to Barcelona today to speak at the BIST Forum 2026, Frontier Research: The Ground for a New Industry, organised by the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).

Highlights of the visit (visuals attached):

Participation in the BIST Forum 2026

During her speech at the BIST Forum 2026, President Calviño emphasised that Europe is a superpower in technology, trade and industry, as well as the importance of public-private collaboration to strengthen that leadership for the benefit of all Europeans. Barcelona plays a very important role in these areas, thanks in particular to its vibrant ecosystem of startups and research centres, which receive strong support from the EIB Group. Among other projects, the Group finances the Caixa Research Centre in immunology, Inbrain’s graphene brain implant, and the quantum computing companies Luxquanta and Quside, which originated at Barcelona’s Institute of Photonic Sciences, part of BIST.

She announced a future EIB investment in a technology driven by scientists at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia to reuse recycled fibres, leading to the production of sustainable construction materials, with applications in key areas like housing. The EIB Group expects to be able to share details and company names in May. She also highlighted that the EIB Group is investing record amounts in technological innovation, launching initiatives such as TechEU to mobilise €250 billion in investments by 2027.

She concluded with a call for unity and action in a turbulent global context in which Europe must leverage its strengths in science and innovation to defend peace, democracy and social cohesion, with the EIB committed to playing a key role in building a secure and prosperous future.

Attendance at the ICF-EIB loan signing for social infrastructure

President Calviño, together with Minister for Economy and Finance of the Government of Catalonia Alícia Romero, and Minister for Social Rights and Inclusion Mònica Martínez Bravo, as well as social sector entities, attended the signing of a €50 million loan between the EIB and ICF to finance the construction, acquisition and refurbishment of care homes, day centres and assisted living facilities for vulnerable groups.

“Last year, the EIB Group invested €2.2 billion in Catalonia, with a strong focus on social infrastructure, affordable housing and better educational facilities. One in every four euros invested in Catalonia went to social infrastructure, including housing,” said EIB Group President Nadia Calviño.

The project will create around 7 500 care places and help ease the burden of unpaid care work, which falls mainly on women. The financing is the second and final tranche of a total loan of €150 million. The first tranche, amounting to €100 million, was signed in May 2025.

Visit to Heura Foods

Heura Foods is a Barcelona-based startup that produces 100% plant-based, sustainable and healthy foods, especially plant-based meat. The EIB signed a €20 million loan with Heura in 2025 for research, development and innovation investments to expand its range of products.

“It has been a pleasure to discover the flavours and textures of Heura Foods in Barcelona, a Spanish company at the forefront of sustainable food, which is expanding its laboratories to develop plant-based alternatives to meat with EIB financing,” EIB Group President Nadia Calviño said during her visit to the startup.

Background information

EIB Group

The EIB Group is the financing arm of the European Union, owned by the 27 Member States, and one of the largest multilateral development banks in the world. In 2025, the EIB Group signed €100 billion of new financing and advisory services for over 870 high-impact projects serving eight core priorities that support EU policy objectives: climate action and the environment, digitalisation and technological innovation, security and defence, territorial cohesion, agriculture and bioeconomy, social infrastructure, strong global partnerships and the savings and investments union. Beyond long-term loans for large-scale infrastructure, the EIB Group crowds in private investment for high-risk innovative projects and businesses, with a growing role in Europe’s markets for venture debt, venture capital, guarantees and securitisations.

In 2025, the EIB Group completed financing and investment operations in Spain totalling around €11 billion, which came alongside an additional €2.9 billion under the Regional Resilience Fund (NextGenerationEU loans).

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is the subsidiary of the EIB Group specialised in providing guarantees and equity to improve access to finance for small and medium-sized businesses and startups across Europe. Acting as an anchor investor, through its extensive network of partnering banks and investment funds, the EIF mobilises private investment and nurtures the ecosystem of venture capital funds to support innovative European entrepreneurs.

In 2023 the EIF, together with six Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands), launched the European Tech Champions Initiative, a fund of funds to scale up innovative startups. This initiative has already enabled the creation of 13 European venture capital megafunds and scaled up 38 companies, including 11 unicorns (with more than €1 billion in capital).

Photos of the EIB Group management and headquarters, logo files and video B-roll for media use are available here.