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16 February, 2022This call, which will have more than 144 million euros, is the main tool to finance biomedical and health research in Spain
The Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón) has hosted today, at the Lozano Blesa Clinical Hospital in Zaragoza, the national presentation of the Strategic Health Action (AES) for this year 2022, which will have more than 144 million thanks to the contribution from the General State Budgets and Recovery Funds. The AES, which manages the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII) as an organism dependent on the Ministry of Science and Innovation, is the main tool for financing biomedical and health research in Spain and grants aid for carrying out contracts and research projects to promote the development of R&D&I. in health in Spain and the professional career of its research community, mainly focused on health.
The Health Minister of Government of Aragon, Sira Repollés, attended the opening of the information day, where she highlighted Strategic Action in Health "as a preferred tool for financing health research." For his part, the director of the ISCIII, Cristóbal Belda, has stressed that the Strategic Action in Health “has increased in the last three years both the number of annual contracts and the average financing per project” and, although he acknowledged that “there is still move forward”, in his opinion “we are on the path of what we want to achieve”.
The IIS Aragón competes competitively every year in the call for Strategic Action in Health to obtain financing for its projects. “We are between 30% and 50% successful thanks to the researchers we have at a clinical and basic level, which can be considered a fairly high percentage,” stressed Ángel Lanas, scientific director of the IIS Aragón, who also has highlighted the collaboration with the research groups of the University of Zaragoza, the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences and the community hospitals.

Lanas has also highlighted the lines of research at the IIS Aragón on COVID-19, where there are around twenty projects in operation – many of them related to the immune response of patients – and on cancer. “We are working and directing our research action towards cell therapies, directed both at the hematological level and at solid tumors,” she revealed.
After the welcome, Rosario Perona, deputy director general of Research Evaluation and Promotion of the ISCIII, announced the new features presented by this edition of the AES 2022. Afterwards, Elena Sanz and Ana Barderas, from the General Secretariat of Evaluation and Promotion of ISCIII Research, have presented the call, and Elena Domenech, coordinator of International Projects of the ISCIII, has addressed the lines of international collaboration. The session concluded with a question period.
The AES 2022 includes various ordinary calls for aid to carry out contracts and health research projects, to which extraordinary calls linked to the Vanguard Health PERTE must be added, such as those for Infrastructure and Precision Medicine. The main novelties in the AES 2022 are aimed at stabilizing the research career thanks to modifications in certain contracts; consolidate independent clinical research projects; expand the research groups in the CIBER Consortium, and reformulate the technological development projects in health to guarantee a true transfer of knowledge.
The ordinary calls included in the AES 2022 (a total of 15) are distributed across three state programs: the State Program to Develop, Attract and Retain Talent; the State Program to Promote Scientific-Technical Research and its Transfer, and the State Program to Address the Priorities of Our Environment. All three have subprograms in which the different calls for aid, contracts and projects are included, which this year include new developments in contracts such as the Sara Borrell and Miguel Servet contracts, and in projects such as those called Research (R+D+I) in Health.
On the other hand, the AES 2022 includes priority areas for the granting of aid, contracts and projects, in line with what is established by the State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation, they are the following:
– Health throughout the entire life cycle, with special focus on vulnerable populations and groups that require actions to promote greater equity and reduce social and gender inequalities in health.
– Environmental and social determinants of health.
– Infectious diseases and Global Health.
– Digital health.
– Improvement of health systems, with special attention to their sustainability and relationship with socioeconomic factors.
About the Aragón Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón)
The IIS Aragón is the Health Research Institute formed by the “Lozano Blesa” and “Miguel Servet” University Hospitals, Primary Health Care, the University of Zaragoza and the Aragonese Institute of Health Sciences. The objectives of the IIS Aragón are to bring together basic and applied, clinical and health services research; create a quality research, care and teaching environment that integrates health professionals, training specialists and postgraduate and undergraduate students, as well as constitute the ideal place for attracting talent and the location of large scientific-technological facilities.