The Institut de Ciències Fotòniques (ICFO) is a research center specialized in photonics, the science that studies light. It was created in Barcelona in March 2002 by the Department of Universities, Research and Information Society of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. In 2005, it moved to the Mediterranean Technology Park, in Castelldefels, in a 14.000 square meter building. It currently has about 60 laboratories and 400 employees. In 2015, it became part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), created the same year to group centers of excellence in research in different fields.