On 12 June, Navarrabiomed hosted the event “Info Day: European Health Funding 2025: Challenges and Opportunities”, organised by the biomedical research centre and Navarra Health Cluster. The event was made possible thanks to funding from the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, the State Research Agency, and the European Union, with support from the Government of Navarre. The day was chaired by Alicia Echeverría, Government Delegate in Navarre, and Sergio Pérez, Director General of External Action of the Government of Navarre. It brought together around one hundred health professionals interested in exploring the challenges and opportunities for developing European projects.
Among the attendees were professionals from research, academic, and healthcare settings; representatives from public administration; as well as around twenty companies involved in R&D and innovation in health.
During the institutional opening, the Government Delegate in Navarre highlighted the opportunities offered by the Horizon Europe programme and recalled that between 2021 and 2023, a return of €3.416 billion was achieved, making Spain the third highest recipient of grants, behind only Germany and France. Alicia Echeverría also affirmed that “a commitment to science and innovation is embedded in the DNA of the Government of Spain.” She added, “A country that invests in science is a country that advances and progresses; it is more resilient and better prepared to face present and future challenges,” noting that since 2018, the central government has doubled its budget for Science.
On his part, Sergio Pérez, Director General of External Action of the Government of Navarre, emphasised that “promoting Navarre’s participation in European projects is one of the key objectives of the Government of Navarre’s Second External Action Plan 2025-2028. Supporting events like this one, organised by the European Projects Office, which help to disseminate and better publicise opportunities for a strategic sector for Navarre such as health, is highly appropriate to achieve greater presence of Navarre in Europe.”
Presentations and success stories
This event, moderated by NHC manager Laura Corcuera, detailed the 2025 Work Programme for the Horizon Europe calls, the Cancer Mission, and the new Innovative Health Initiative (IHI) call. The session featured two professionals serving as National Contact Points (NCPs): Marta de Diego from the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) and Marta Marín from the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). The event also included participation from Laura Sesma, an expert in European health programmes from the consultancy Zabala Innovation.
During the event, time was dedicated to exchanging best practices regarding the submission of European project proposals as well as project management to improve the return of European funds. Specifically, the following projects were presented as success stories: SYNTHIA from IIS La Fe (Valencia), IMPROVE from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, PIECES from the Catalan Institute of Oncology, and THERESA PCP from Navarrabiomed – Miguel Servet Foundation.
“This type of forum is vital to facilitate the formation of strategic consortia and the development of proposals that enable Navarre to participate in, or better yet, lead innovative initiatives that strengthen us as a competitive region in Health,” said Javier Gómez-Arrue, director of Navarrabiomed.
As a closing, the event provided a networking space to encourage alliances and synergies among the various stakeholders in the development of competitive proposals.
