The ISCIII celebrates this Thursday an information day on Strategic Action in Health 2021

January 22, 2021

The ISCIII has held an online information day on Thursday about Strategic Action in Health (AES) 2021, approved on December 22. The AES is the main tool for the financing of biomedical and health research in Spain, through the awarding, each year, of different grants for the development of research projects and the hiring of researchers. At the conference, this year's call was presented, and the main novelties of the AES 2021 were recalled and explained, which has an amount of 134,4 million euros, 33,2% more than in 2020.

The director of the ISCIII, Raquel Yotti, opened the session, which began with the intervention of Cristóbal Belda, deputy director of Evaluation and Promotion of Research, who summarized the news of the call. Next, Pilar Gayoso, Elena Sanz and Ana Barderas, from the aforementioned Sub-directorate, have specified the contents of the AES 2021. Gonzalo Arévalo, Sub-Director-General for International Programs and Institutional Relations, and Ignacio Baanante, from the latter Sub-directorate, have focused on in international joint programming projects. The conference closed with the participation of Margarita Blázquez, Deputy Director General of Cooperative Research Networks and Centers.

Among the novelties of this year's call, the AES offers a new impulse to cooperative research on the net through two main actions: the creation of a new Center for Biomedical Research on the Net (CIBER) for Infectious Diseases and a new operating model of the Thematic Networks of Cooperative Research in Health (RETICS). In addition, it includes salary improvements, with an increase in the amount of aid corresponding to the State Training Subprogram and post-doctoral contracts, and the consolidation of the independent clinical research program within a single call, which allows guaranteeing the integration of this program in the normality of the annual calls of the ISCIII.