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FCT and "la Caixa" Foundation support 12 Portuguese health research projects

The Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the "la Caixa" Foundation have revealed the 12 projects led by Portuguese institutions and researchers that make up the list of 30 finalist Iberian projects of Call CaixaResearch de Investigação em Saúde 2021, which will be funded with 7.9 million euros. FCT will finance 5 of these 12 projects with 2.6 million euros of the total investment. The projects will be developed over the next 3 years.

This Call takes place under the Iberian Initiative for Biomedical Research and Innovation - i4b established between FCT and the "la Caixa" Foundation, which supports research projects in neuroscience, infectious diseases, cardiovascular diseases, and oncological diseases, and in transdisciplinary projects with an emphasis on translational and clinical research. The collaboration with FCT has existed since the creation of Call in 2018, which has already enabled the joint funding of a total of 29 projects led by Portuguese institutions, promoting collaboration between Iberian research centers and universities, with an overall investment of about 22 million euros.

The 30 projects selected in the 2021 edition aim to combat some of the diseases with the greatest impact on health worldwide and are organized by area: oncology (9 projects), neurosciences (9 projects), cardiovascular and related metabolic diseases (6 projects) and infectious diseases (6 projects). Part of the selected projects will develop biomedical enabling technologies, which will allow addressing some of these health challenges. 

The 12 Portuguese projects selected come from research centers and universities from various regions: 6 from the North Region (Porto and Braga), 5 from Lisbon and 1 from the Center Region (Coimbra). The 2021 edition of CaixaResearch Research in Health was the one with the best results for Portuguese institutions since the beginning of Call.

Next September, the "la Caixa" Foundation will launch the 2022 edition of Call CaixaResearch Research in Health and interested researchers can submit their applications. Funding for projects selected under Call can be up to 500,000 euros over three years for projects submitted by a single research organization, and up to 1,000,000 euros over three years for projects submitted by a minimum of two and a maximum of five research organizations.