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Scientific Director’s Presentation
Francisco Fernández-Avilés
Dear colleagues at the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Cardiovasculares (CIBERCV), I am writing again on behalf of the Management Committee and myself to thank you for the great efforts that you have made in 2018 and for your ongoing commitment. The second year in the development of our thematic area is unquestionably satisfactory,
due both to the achievements made and to the great involvement of all the groups, which have managed to overcome a lot of difficulties.
In 2018 we passed the first assessment of the External Advisory Scientific Committee, which issued a clearly favourable report on our
work and some very useful recommendations for improvement including: (1) the need to reinforce internationalisation and excellence; (2) to identify, recruit and retain young talent;
(3) to commit to key areas, promoting the main technological capacities; (4) to foster and reward a multidisciplinary approach; and (5) to take advantage of and boost the enormous capacities of the national health system, specifically in the management of data and registers.
We are aware at the Management Committee that all the groups are making great efforts to ensure progress in these fields. This second year our CIBER has already managed to lead several joint schemes in European projects, both in the H2020 programme (Impact of Mediterranean Diet, Inflammation and Microbiome on plaque vulnerability and microvascular dysfunction after an Acute -JPI-HDHL-) and in the ERANET network and in the Innovative Medicines Initiative (CARDIA-TEAM– IMI2-2017-13-01).
What is more, in 2018 we managed to implement some of the main CIBERCV actions such as
the competitive grants through intramural projects and through actions for identifying
and encouraging talent by means of the Jordi Soler-Soler grants. Some of the major scientific achievements are different multi-centre
studies led by CIBER researchers. Another great milestone in 2018 was signing a cooperation agreement with the Agencia Española del Medicamento for promoting and furthering research in the thematic area of cardiovascular diseases enabling us to go further in the integral management of data provided by the National Health System. Another great achievement was the coordination by the CIBERCV of the 52nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society for Clinical Investigation, at which the main projects and scientific contributions made by the centre were presented.
We struggle from our economically weak position against the great bureaucratic difficulties found at the Central Administration. Our optimism nonetheless also makes us aware that science managers are also committed in this battle and we think that the Consortium which
we have joined is an incomparable venue for excellence which guarantees us a stable budget, even though this is chronically low and seriously affected by today’s political instability. All of
this is enabling us to put Spanish cooperative cardiovascular research on the highest national and international rung of competitiveness. Thanks to you.
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CIBERCV | ANNUAL REPORT 2018