The Institute for High Energy Physics (Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies, IFAE) of Barcelona, Spain , is a Public Consortium between the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia) and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). It was formally created on July 16, 1991, by Act number 159/1991 of the Generalitat. As an organization it is independent from both the UAB and the Generalitat, ruled by its own Statutes, and governed by a Governing Board. It is located on the campus of UAB in Bellaterra, Barcelona.
The IFAE has its own Titular Personnel as well as Associated Personnel consisting on members of the Physics Department of UAB working on Particle Physics. It has also an agreement with Universitat de Barcelona (dated 8/7/1992) which also allows the faculty of that university working on Particle Physics to be Associated Personnel of IFAE.
The IFAE is also ascribed to the UAB as a University Institute (Act number 231/1995 of the Generalitat) which allows its members to teach in its Doctoral Programme in Physics, and thus benefits from a productive symbiotic relationship with this major education and research institution.
The institute is dedicated to forefront experimental and theoretical research in the fields of high energy physics and high energy astrophysics as well as in related technologies.