FONDAZIONE REGIONALE PER LA RICERCA BIOMEDICA

Their core work

FRRB is a regional biomedical research foundation based in Milan that acts as a funding agency and programme coordinator for health research in Lombardy, Italy. Rather than conducting bench research itself, it aligns regional funding strategies with European research priorities — organizing transnational calls, co-funding clinical and translational research, and connecting regional programmes to EU-wide initiatives. Its core function is bridging regional health policy with international biomedical research networks, particularly in cancer, rare diseases, personalised medicine, and antimicrobial resistance.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

FRRB's early H2020 participation (2015-2018) combined institutional capacity-building — including a gender equality and reflexive self-assessment project (TARGET) — with its first cancer research funding alignment efforts through TRANSCAN-2. From 2019 onward, the foundation shifted decisively toward disease-specific programme coordination, expanding from cancer into rare diseases (EJP RD), personalised medicine (ERA PerMed, REGIONS4PERMED), and antimicrobial resistance (JPIAMR-ACTION). The trajectory shows a clear move from internal institutional development toward becoming a mature, multi-disease funding coordination hub with growing thematic breadth.

FRRB is broadening from cancer-only funding coordination into a general biomedical funding agency covering personalised medicine, rare diseases, and AMR — expect them to join more disease-area ERA-NETs and Joint Programmes in the future.

How they like to work

FRRB operates exclusively as a participant, never as a coordinator — consistent with its role as a regional funding body that joins large European programme-level actions rather than leading individual research projects. With 194 unique partners across 40 countries, it works in very large consortia typical of ERA-NET Cofund and European Joint Programme structures. This means partnering with FRRB gives access to a broad network of national funding agencies and research organisations, but the relationship is programme-level rather than hands-on research collaboration.

FRRB has collaborated with 194 unique partners across 40 countries, reflecting the broad membership of ERA-NET and EJP consortia rather than selective bilateral partnerships. Their network spans virtually all EU member states and associated countries, with particularly strong connections to other national and regional funding agencies.

What sets them apart

FRRB occupies a distinctive position as a regional (Lombardy) funding foundation that punches above its weight in European health research coordination. Unlike universities or research institutes, it does not conduct research — it funds and aligns research programmes, making it valuable as a bridge between regional smart specialisation strategies and pan-European health priorities. For consortium builders, FRRB brings co-funding capacity and direct links to Lombardy's biomedical ecosystem, one of the strongest in Southern Europe.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ERA PerMed
  Largest single project by funding (EUR 1.39M), an ERA-NET Cofund in Personalised Medicine that positions FRRB at the centre of Europe's personalised health funding landscape.
• EJP RD
  The European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases is one of the largest health research programmes in H2020, and FRRB's participation signals commitment to FAIR data principles and patient-centred research translation.
• TRANSCAN-3
  Continuation of TRANSCAN-2, demonstrating sustained long-term commitment to translational cancer research funding coordination spanning over a decade (2015-2027).