FUNDACAO OSWALDO CRUZ

Their core work

FIOCRUZ is Brazil's premier public health research institution, headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, with deep expertise in infectious disease research, epidemiology, and public health policy. In H2020, they served as a critical Latin American node for global health emergencies — particularly the Zika virus response — contributing clinical data, epidemiological surveillance, and research infrastructure across three major Zika-focused consortia. They also engage in health data governance, personalized medicine policy for EU-Latin America cooperation, and responsible research practices in biosciences.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

FIOCRUZ's early H2020 involvement (2016-2017) combined responsible research governance (STARBIOS 2, with keywords like structural change, ethics, open access, scientific citizenship) with the launch of their major Zika response portfolio. By the later period (2019+), their focus shifted decisively toward health data infrastructure — building international disease repositories, harmonizing omics data across cohorts, and shaping EU-Latin America personalized medicine policy. The trajectory shows a clear move from emergency disease response toward sustainable data-driven health research infrastructure.

FIOCRUZ is transitioning from acute epidemic response toward building lasting international health data repositories and shaping cross-continental personalized medicine policy — making them increasingly relevant for data-intensive global health collaborations.

How they like to work

FIOCRUZ operates exclusively as a participant or partner — never as coordinator in H2020 — which reflects their role as a non-EU institution contributing regional expertise to European-led consortia. With 141 unique partners across 36 countries, they are a highly connected hub, particularly valuable as a bridge between European and Latin American research ecosystems. Their participation in large consortia (the three Zika projects alone involved massive international networks) shows they are comfortable in complex, multi-partner frameworks and bring established institutional capacity to large-scale efforts.

FIOCRUZ has built an exceptionally wide network of 141 partners across 36 countries through just 7 projects, reflecting their participation in large international health consortia. Their geographic reach spans Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia — essentially wherever infectious disease preparedness matters.

What sets them apart

FIOCRUZ is one of the few non-European research institutions with sustained, substantial H2020 participation in health — and the most prominent Latin American partner in global infectious disease consortia. They bring something European institutions cannot: direct access to tropical disease clinical data, patient cohorts, and surveillance infrastructure in Brazil, the epicenter of the Zika crisis. For any consortium needing a credible, well-resourced Latin American health research partner with global reputation, FIOCRUZ is the obvious choice.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ZIKAlliance
  Largest single EC contribution to FIOCRUZ (EUR 735,691) — a flagship global Zika alliance positioning them at the center of the international response.
• RECODID
  Represents FIOCRUZ's strategic pivot toward health data infrastructure, building integrated repositories for infectious disease cohorts with personalized medicine applications.
• ZIKAction
  Focused specifically on maternal-paediatric Zika transmission — a clinically urgent area where FIOCRUZ's Brazilian patient access was irreplaceable (EUR 555,594).