We present the winning projects of the second call for our research grant program, Pasqual Maragall Researchers Program (PMRP), endowed with 1.6 million euros. This initiative aims to promote innovative projects focused on Alzheimer's and other age-related neurodegenerative diseases.
The PMRP, the most important private scholarship programme in Spain in this area of research, promotes excellent research led by leading centres throughout the country. It also opens up new avenues for tackling Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Arcadi Navarro, director of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, highlights the importance of this program: “The projects awarded in this second edition are outstanding examples of innovation and scientific excellence, and we are convinced that they will significantly contribute to accelerating the development of solutions against dementia. These initiatives are essential to move towards a future in which dementia is a thing of the past.”
2 winning projects in the 2023 call
One of the award-winning projects is led by the Dr. Silvia De Santis, head of the Translational Imaging Biomarkers group at the Alicante Neurosciences Institute, a joint center of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) in Elche. Their research will apply new technology to analyze the state of the immune system through brain scans of participants in the Alpha study. It also seeks to improve the interpretation of previous images by using artificial intelligence to increase their resolution.
The second project is led by the Dr. Alberto Rábano, Director of the Tissue Bank of Neurological Diseases Research Center (CIEN), and aims to better understand the genetic bases of various brain pathologies. Rábano will work on creating the largest neuropathological database in the Iberian Peninsula, combining detailed genomic data with an updated neuropathological classification. This research, carried out in collaboration with the Dr Victoria Fernández, head of the Genomics program at Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona, aims to improve early diagnosis and risk assessment tools.
New call for PMRP scholarships
Following the success of the first two calls, which received a total of more than a hundred applications, we are now launching the third edition of the PMRP grants, with a budget of 1.6 million euros. Each winning project may receive up to €800,000.
The grants are aimed at individual projects led by a principal investigator or collaborative research between a maximum of three groups, with a coordinator in charge of the consortium. The projects must be led by public or non-profit research institutions in Spain.
For more information about the new call, interested parties can consult the official website of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation: https://fpmaragall.org/ca/pasqual-maragall-researchers-programme/ or send your queries to the email researchgrants@fpmaragall.org
