FUNDACION BANCARIA CAIXA D'ESTALVIS I PENSIONS DE BARCELONA LA CAIXA

Their core work

La Caixa Foundation is one of Europe's largest private foundations, using its banking-origin endowment to fund and manage large-scale research fellowship programmes across Spain and internationally. In H2020, they operated major MSCA-COFUND doctoral (INPhINIT) and postdoctoral (JUNIOR LEADER) fellowship schemes that place early-career researchers in Spanish host institutions with industry secondments. Beyond fellowships, they actively promote gender equality in STEM, responsible research and innovation (RRI), and science engagement through co-creation with citizens and industry. Their role is essentially that of a research funding body and programme operator — bridging private philanthropy with EU research policy.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their early H2020 period (2015-2017), La Caixa focused on science-society topics: gender equality in STEM, responsible innovation, e-learning platforms, MOOCs, and science centre engagement. From 2017 onward, their focus shifted decisively toward operating large researcher mobility programmes with strong industry-academia bridges, career development, and open science. The trajectory shows a foundation moving from supporting RRI awareness projects as a participant to running its own flagship fellowship infrastructure as a coordinator.

La Caixa is consolidating its position as a major European fellowship operator with increasing emphasis on industry-academia transfer and open science — expect continued investment in researcher mobility infrastructure.

How they like to work

La Caixa plays a dual role: they coordinate their own large fellowship programmes (INPhINIT, JUNIOR LEADER) with full ownership, while joining broader policy-oriented consortia (GENDER NET Plus, LIV.IN) as a well-funded participant lending credibility and institutional weight. With 62 unique partners across 22 countries, they maintain a wide but purpose-driven network — each project connects them to different communities rather than repeating the same partners. As a foundation with significant resources, they bring co-funding capacity that most partners cannot, making them an attractive consortium member.

Extensive European network spanning 62 partners across 22 countries, reflecting both their fellowship programme reach (which places researchers across Spanish and European institutions) and their participation in pan-European policy coordination projects on gender and RRI.

What sets them apart

La Caixa is rare in H2020: a private philanthropic foundation with the financial muscle to co-fund large MSCA fellowship programmes at a scale that most foundations or universities cannot match. Their combined doctoral and postdoctoral programmes (over EUR 10M in EC funding alone, plus substantial own co-funding) make them one of Spain's most significant non-governmental research funders. For potential partners, they offer something unusual — access to a foundation that can bring both private money and EU funding to researcher mobility, with deep networks into Spanish academia and industry.

Highlights from their portfolio

• JUNIOR LEADER
  Largest project at EUR 5.7M — a flagship postdoctoral fellowship programme coordinated by la Caixa, integrating open science and industry secondments.
• INPhINIT
  EUR 4.7M doctoral programme coordinated by la Caixa, placing early-stage researchers across Spanish institutions with interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral training.
• GENDER NET Plus
  ERA-NET Cofund for promoting gender equality across H2020 — positions la Caixa in European research policy networks beyond their own programmes.