FUNDACAO D. ANNA DE SOMMER CHAMPALIMAUD E DR. CARLOS MONTEZ CHAMPALIMAUD

Their core work

The Champalimaud Foundation is a Lisbon-based biomedical research centre focused on neuroscience and cancer biology. Their neuroscience programme dissects the neural circuits that control movement, decision-making, and defensive behaviour — using model organisms from fruit flies to zebrafish to mice. They also run a clinical cancer programme and have a growing line of neuro-immune research exploring how the nervous system shapes mucosal immunity and gut-brain interactions. Their work combines advanced imaging (calcium imaging, ultra-high resolution MRI), optogenetics, and electrophysiology to map brain function at the circuit level.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015–2018), the foundation concentrated heavily on developing new functional MRI techniques (SPECIFIC fMRI, DIRECT-fMRI, Neuronal MRI) and participated in large-scale brain simulation efforts like the Human Brain Project, with strong keywords in neuroinformatics, high-performance computing, and neuromorphic computing. From 2019 onward, the focus shifted decisively toward behavioural neuroscience using Drosophila and zebrafish models — mapping circuits for defensive behaviours, social behaviour, and motor learning — while neuro-immune research (gut-brain axis, mucosal immunity) matured into a distinct research line. The imaging work evolved from method development toward application, with ultra-high resolution MRI and neurovascular coupling becoming tools rather than primary research goals.

Champalimaud is moving from tool and method development toward organism-level questions — how circuits produce behaviour and how the nervous system controls immunity — making them an increasingly relevant partner for translational neuroscience and immunology projects.

How they like to work

Champalimaud overwhelmingly leads its own projects: 37 of 50 H2020 projects were coordinated by them (74%), mostly individual ERC grants and Marie Curie fellowships that fund their principal investigators. Their 13 participations tend to be in large flagship consortia (Human Brain Project, BOUNCE, ELBA) rather than mid-size collaborative projects. With 251 unique partners across 25 countries, they are a well-connected hub, but their dominant coordination pattern means prospective partners should expect to join Champalimaud-led initiatives or recruit them as a specialist contributor into large programmes rather than bilateral collaborations.

With 251 unique consortium partners spread across 25 countries, Champalimaud has built one of the broader collaboration networks among Portuguese research centres. Their partnerships span Western Europe extensively, with particular ties to institutions in brain research, immunology, and cancer biology.

What sets them apart

Champalimaud is rare in combining world-class systems neuroscience with a parallel cancer programme and an emerging neuro-immune research line — all under one roof in a private foundation free from university bureaucracy. Their dominance in ERC and Marie Curie grants (28 of 50 projects) signals that European panels consistently rate their principal investigators among the best. For consortium builders, they bring deep expertise in circuit-level neuroscience methods (optogenetics, calcium imaging, electrophysiology) that few other Portuguese institutions can match.

Highlights from their portfolio

• QuantOCancer
  Largest single grant (EUR 2.5M) — a Teaming project that bridges Champalimaud's neuroscience and cancer programmes into a unified quantitative biomedicine approach.
• DYCOCIRC
  EUR 2M ERC grant on basal ganglia and decision-making — represents their strength in high-level cognitive circuit research beyond simple motor control.
• A-FRO
  EUR 2M ERC grant using Drosophila to study defensive freezing behaviour — exemplifies their recent shift toward ethologically relevant behavioural questions in invertebrate models.