The three calls will be deployed within the framework of the PERTE for Vanguard Health and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, and under the umbrella of the Strategic Action in Health (AES), the main tool for funding health research in Spain, which is managed by the ISCIII
The Secretary General for Research, Eva Ortega, took part in the presentation of these calls, where she highlighted the Ministry’s commitment to health research through the Carlos III Institute of Health. “We have significantly increased the Institute’s budget from 270 million euros in 2018 to almost 600 million euros in 2023,” she said.
Ortega has stated that “this growth makes clear our commitment to quality science to advance in the search for solutions in the field of health and, therefore, improve the welfare of people, an objective that is at the heart of our policies”.
TDB keeps you informed. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Science, Innovation and Universities earmarks 90 million to boost biomedical and health research
Call for the development of Clinical Research Units (UiC)
The first of these calls provides 45 million euros to fund actions aimed at creating or consolidating Clinical Research Units in Spain, structures belonging to health centres, such as hospitals or primary care centres, and which may form part of Health Research Institutes, dedicated to supporting the development of clinical trials with a focus on the needs of the people who participate in them.
Spain is currently the second country in the world in the development of clinical trials, a leading position that this call will help to consolidate, improving the research capacities of the National Health System (NHS) with the provision of infrastructures specifically aimed at this.
This new call incorporates a new element to the structuring of research and innovation capacities in the NHS, with criteria of equity in the access of citizens to the available resources.
To this end, it focuses on the adequate coverage of the needs of patients participating in clinical trials and their families, with special attention to vulnerable groups, making progress in humanisation.
In addition, it aims to strengthen clinical research in geographical areas with less identified development in this field, in order to promote access to clinical trials for the population in these areas.
Call for research projects on personalised precision medicine
The second call for Joint Missions from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and the Ministry of Health seeks to continue consolidating an equitable and territorially cohesive implementation of precision medicine in Spain.
A total of 25 million euros in grants will be awarded to finance projects capable of transforming decision-making in clinical practice and public health measures, advancing towards a safer, more efficient, preventive and predictive medicine, based on the appropriate use of massive data and adapted to the individual characteristics that affect health.
This aid will enable the further deployment in Spain of specific applications of personalised precision medicine to advance in an early and individualised approach to diseases. These new applications must be based on the IMPaCT infrastructure, which works on three main pillars: Genomic Medicine, Predictive Medicine and Data Science.
Opening and closing dates for the submission of proposals for the following calls for proposals
Clinical research units: from 16 July to 12 September.
The two Science-Health missions: from 18 July to 5 September.