Morant: "The Government of Spain has allocated more than €993 million to cancer research projects since 2018"

The Minister for Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, highlighted that "the Spanish Government has allocated €993.4 million since 2018 to cancer research and innovation projects".

Morant stated that "the Government of Spain is fully committed to the fight against this disease and, for this reason, we are making the largest investment ever made in the history of our country to research cancer and find a cure".

"We are working intensively on researching and developing increasingly precise and personalised treatments: unique therapies, with names and surnames, that help to increase quality of life and life expectancy," she said.

The Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU) is earmarking this investment through its three main R&D funding bodies: the Carlos III Institute for Heath (ISCIII), the State Research Agency (AEI) and the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI).

This amount is in addition to the regular funding for public research bodies and their researchers, and the work being carried out in this area by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).

Carlos III Health Institute

Of the total investment, the ISCIII has allocated €412 million since 2018 to 1,003 cancer projects through calls and programmes such as, for example, the Acción Estratégica en Salud, the main biomedical and healthcare funding tool in Spain.

Funding from the Carlos III Health Institute for cancer research projects grew by 157% between 2018 and 2024 thanks to the boost provided by the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation (PERTE) for Vanguard Health..

In addition, the ISCIII promotes research specifically aimed at this field through organisations such as the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) and the Centre for Biomedical Research in Cancer Network (CIBERONC).

Spanish State Research Agency

For its part, the Spanish State Research Agency (ERA) provided more than €396.4 million in funds to 1,327 cancer research projects between 2018 and 2024.

One of them, led by researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), will conduct a proof of concept to establish the effectiveness of a new gene therapy, Nanogtbox, for the treatment of cancer, proposing a new treatment against aggressive and metastatic tumours.

Centre for Technological Development and Innovation

In addition, the CDTI has allocated €185 million to nearly 190 projects since 2018 to boost innovative cancer technologies.

These include preclinical research at PALOBIOFARMA for three new targeted therapies that act on cancer through different molecular mechanisms that activate the immune system; and the development of the first Hadron therapy research infrastructure in Spain, based on a carbon ion accelerator, with an investment of 18 million euros.

Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spanish National Research Council)

For its part, the CSIC is developing 162 national and regional competitive cancer research projects and has raised a total of 38.13 million euros.

In addition, 2021 saw the founding of the Cancer Connection, a scientific-technical collaboration network that acts as a platform to establish collaborations between research groups and with other essential agents for tackling this disease, such as patient associations, scientific societies, national and international companies, hospitals and other public bodies.

Cancer Connection is currently made up of 565 researchers from more than 90 research groups, belonging to 20 centres distributed throughout the country.

Non official translation