INSTITUTO DE SALUD CARLOS III

Their core work

ISCIII is Spain's leading public health research institute and the main funder of biomedical research under the Spanish Ministry of Health. In H2020, they primarily operated as a research funding coordination body — aligning Spain's national health research programs with European initiatives through ERA-NETs, Joint Programming Initiatives, and Coordination & Support Actions. Their role centers on managing transnational research calls, harmonizing funding across countries, and building the infrastructure for cross-border health research collaboration, spanning rare diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, antimicrobial resistance, personalised medicine, and human biomonitoring.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2014–2018), ISCIII focused heavily on building European research infrastructure: professionalising NCP networks, aligning national research agendas with EU priorities, and launching ERA-NET joint calls across disease areas like rare diseases and cardiovascular conditions. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted toward data-driven and crisis-responsive health research — FAIR data principles, omics technologies, vaccine monitoring, COVID-19, and the One Health approach linking human, animal, and environmental health. This evolution mirrors the broader European shift from structural coordination toward applied, data-intensive public health responses.

ISCIII is moving from pure funding coordination toward data infrastructure and pandemic preparedness, making them a strong partner for future health security and FAIR data initiatives.

How they like to work

ISCIII overwhelmingly operates as a participant (48 of 53 projects), joining large multi-country consortia rather than leading them — they coordinated only 4 projects, all ERA-NET or CSA type. With 624 unique partners across 57 countries, they function as a well-connected hub in the European health research funding landscape, bringing national funding alignment rather than laboratory capacity. Working with ISCIII means gaining access to Spain's health research funding ecosystem and their extensive network of European funding agencies.

ISCIII maintains one of the broadest networks among health research funders, with 624 unique consortium partners spanning 57 countries — covering virtually all EU member states plus associated countries. Their partnerships are concentrated among national funding agencies, ministries, and research councils rather than individual research labs.

What sets them apart

ISCIII occupies a distinctive position as both a national health research institute and a funding agency, giving them dual influence over research direction and resource allocation in Spain. Unlike university labs or clinical centres, they bring the ability to co-fund transnational research calls — a critical asset for ERA-NET and partnership projects requiring national funding commitments. For consortium builders, ISCIII's involvement signals that Spanish national health research funding is aligned with and committed to the project's goals.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HBM4EU
  Largest single grant (EUR 3.4M) — the flagship European Human Biomonitoring Initiative linking chemical exposure data to health outcomes across 30 countries.
• ERA PerMed
  ISCIII-coordinated ERA-NET Cofund in personalised medicine, demonstrating their leadership in aligning European funding for precision health research.
• HNN 2.0
  ISCIII-coordinated project to professionalise Health National Contact Points across Europe, reflecting their infrastructure-building role in EU research policy.