CRESIB Reviews Its Accomplishments in 2012

2012 will be remembered as a difficult year for science in Spain. Despite the difficult climate, however, CRESIB, ISGlobal's research arm, noted a significant quantitative and qualitative improvement in its research and scientific activities. In 2012 alone, CRESIB's researchers published over 170 original scientific articles—the most ever in its short history—and saw how its efforts in scientific research generated important projects in numerous areas, including malaria, the causes of death in poor countries, HIV infection in sub-Saharan Africa, and tropical diseases:

• Four multicenter projects coordinated by principal investigators from CRESIB, including two projects with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one with the US National Institutes of Health and another within the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme
• One project with the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
• Five projects with the Spanish Health Research Fund (FIS)
• Two projects within the Spanish cooperative research networks (RETICS)

Summary of research contracts and grants received by CRESIB staff in 2012

• One research professor contract with the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA)
• One Sara Borrell postdoctoral contract
• One Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral contract
• One predoctoral health research training grant (PFIS)
• One Río Hortega health research training contract
• Two grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III in the area of bioinformatics and cytometry

In addition, CRESIB received 2 grants from the Catalan Agency for the Administration of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) to incorporate a project manager with expertise in European Union tenders and to help with the organisation of scientific seminars throughout 2013.

Finally, 2012 saw the launch of a strategic alliance between CRESIB, CREAL (the Barcelona-based Centre for Research in Environmental Epidemiology) and ISGlobal to create a critical mass of research expertise in global health. The alliance is part of the Catalan Government's SUMA project, whose aim is to build critical mass and excellence within the Catalan network of research centres, CERCA.