The Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB in the Spanish acronym) is an agglomeration of six public research centres and is located alongside the Hospital del Mar de Barcelona. The PRBB is the product of an initiative launched by the Government of Catalonia, the City Council of Barcelona and the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), which aims to promote research and collaboration between closely related fields. Each centre works independently in its own field and a management group, the PRBB Consortium, is responsible for managing the building and facilities, in addition to coordinating joint scientific research activities among the various centres. About 1,400 people are employed in the PRBB, making it one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the south of Europe. The centre was opened in May 2006.