FUNDACIO HOSPITAL UNIVERSITARI VALL D'HEBRON - INSTITUT DE RECERCA

Their core work

VHIR is the research institute of Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, one of Spain's largest hospital complexes. They conduct translational biomedical research — bridging laboratory discoveries and clinical application — with deep strengths in stroke treatment, rare diseases, clinical trial design, and liver disease. Their work spans from early-stage drug and nanoparticle therapies through to large-scale patient-centric clinical trial platforms, making them a critical partner for projects that need direct access to patient populations and clinical infrastructure.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early H2020 period (2015–2018), VHIR focused heavily on disease-specific interventions — stroke recovery with stem cells, liver cirrhosis treatments, cancer nanomedicine, and AIDS vaccine research. From 2019 onward, their work shifted toward infrastructure and methodology: building clinical trial platforms (EU-PEARL), contributing to rare disease data ecosystems (EJP RD), open science infrastructure (EOSC-Life), and risk stratification approaches. This reflects a move from being a clinical site running individual studies to becoming a methodological and platform partner for large-scale, multi-disease trial initiatives.

VHIR is positioning itself as a go-to partner for designing and running patient-centric, multi-indication clinical trial platforms across Europe, moving beyond single-disease clinical contributions.

How they like to work

VHIR predominantly operates as a participant (32 of 46 projects), contributing clinical expertise and patient access to large consortia rather than leading them. Their 5 coordinator roles — notably the flagship EU-PEARL — show they can lead when the project aligns with their clinical trial platform strengths. With 623 unique consortium partners across 48 countries, they function as a well-connected node in European biomedical research, making them easy to integrate into new consortia.

VHIR has collaborated with 623 distinct partners across 48 countries, placing them among the most broadly connected hospital research institutes in H2020. Their network spans all of Europe with strong links to Latin America (EUSAT-RCS) and global health initiatives.

What sets them apart

VHIR combines the clinical infrastructure of one of Spain's largest university hospitals with a research institute capable of running complex multi-site trials. Unlike pure research centres, they offer direct patient recruitment, clinical validation, and regulatory-ready trial execution — particularly valuable for projects transitioning from preclinical to Phase I/II. Their coordination of EU-PEARL demonstrates they can design and manage platform trials across multiple therapeutic areas simultaneously.

Highlights from their portfolio

• EU-PEARL
  Their largest project (EUR 2.18M) as coordinator, building a patient-centric clinical trial platform spanning depression, tuberculosis, and liver disease — a signature achievement.
• PROOF
  EUR 776K study on normobaric oxygen for stroke neuroprotection, exemplifying their core strength in cerebrovascular clinical research.
• SAFE-N-MEDTECH
  EUR 650K project on safety testing for nanotechnology-enabled medical devices, showing their ability to bridge nanomedicine and regulatory safety assessment.