The ibs.GRANADA participates in the I Forum of Health Research Institutes

This Wednesday the ibs.GRANADA has participated in the I Forum of Health Research Institutes (IIS), which was held in the Ernest Lluch Assembly Hall of the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII). This meeting, where the scientific director of the ibs.GRANADA, Jose Antonio López Escámez; and the manager of ibs.GRANADA, Raquel Soriano Martínez, provides a framework for the institutes to increase their mutual cooperation.

The meeting was opened by the director of the ISCIII, Raquel Yotti, and was attended by four of the Institute's deputy directors: Cristóbal Belda, Gonzalo Arévalo, Emilia Sánchez-Chamorro and Margarita Blázquez, as well as the person in charge of evaluation and accreditation of the IIS, Pilar Gayoso, among other representatives of the ISCIII. 

Health Research Institutes are biomedical research centers located in hospitals, whose objective is to generate and develop translational and multidisciplinary knowledge to respond to the health needs of citizens. There are currently 31 IIS accredited by the ISCIII, distributed throughout Spain. 

The director of the ISCIII emphasized that the 31 IIS represent more than 24.000 biomedical researchers, and noted that the Forum will provide new solutions to continue improving a model "that finds wealth in diversity, because each institute is different, but we all pursue the same goals: to create a scientific network in healthcare centers and improve the health of the population." 

Gayoso explains that the holding of this first forum, which brought together scientific directors, managers, and other representatives from the Institutes, "represents the consolidation of a participatory and cooperative approach to jointly addressing biomedical needs and health solutions." 

With this first meeting, the ISCIII creates a stable working space for the IIS, "a framework for proposing further improvements, synergies, shared learning, and common developments," adds Gayoso. From now on, the IIS will meet twice a year and will have a joint work schedule "that facilitates decision-making through ongoing, inclusive and collaborative dialogue," continues the head of the Institutes' evaluation and accreditation. 

The program of this first IIS forum includes a brief talk by Raquel Yotti on the ten years of the IIS model (the first Institutes were accredited in 2009) and on the objectives of the meeting, and an update on the accreditation model of the Institutes in the calls for the Strategic Action in Health (AES), by Cristóbal Belda, deputy director general of Evaluation and Promotion of Research of the ISCIII. 

In addition, Margarita Blázquez, deputy director general of Networks and Cooperative Research Centers, explains the management model and economic monitoring of the Institutes, while Gonzalo Arévalo, deputy director general of International Programs, does the same on the internationalization of the activity of the Institutes and the future development of its participation in the European Infrastructure for Translational Medicine (EATRIS). Joan Comella, EATRIS scientific coordinator in Spain, delves into this aspect introduced by Arévalo. 

Finally, Pilar Gayoso specifies the agenda and the schedule for next year. As he explains, this way of working represents another step towards strengthening two fundamental concepts for the ISCIII: Responsible Research and Innovation (IIR), which seeks to promote ethics, citizen participation, scientific education and gender equality. and open science.