Thematic Areas

The CIBER in the thematic area of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP) focusses its work on two key aspects: learning the magnitude and distribution of public health problems and identifying the determining factors of these to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions, either from the angle of public policies or practical prevention and solution implementations. It is made up of 48 multidisciplinary and multicentre research groups and its current model of scientific organisation consists in establishing a training plan and six research programmes:

• P1. Epidemiology and control of chronic diseases
• P2. Prevention, Monitoring and Control of Transmissible Diseases (PREVICET)
• P3. Biological and behavioural determinants in the acquisition and propagation of transmissible diseases in vulnerable populations (DAPET Programme)
• P4. Social determinants of health
• P5. Epidemiology and prevention of environmental and employment health
• P6. Research in health services in clinical practice

The CIBER’s thematic area of Liver and Digestive Diseases (CIBEREHD) has the purpose of promoting and protecting health by furthering research. This work, whose scope includes both basic research and clinical and translational aspects, is based on the field of Liver and Digestive Diseases with the aim of innovating in the prevention of these diseases and promoting scientific and healthcare progress. At present the CIBEREHD has fifty groups (6 of these being linked) spread over nine of Spain’s Autonomous Communities, jointly working on four corporate programmes:

P1.Mechanisms of liver damage/evolution into advanced cirrhosis and transplant.

P2.Gastrointestinal physiopathology: inflammatory illness and motility disorders.

P3.Epidemiology, prevention and treatment of viral hepatitis infection.

P4.Liver and Digestive Oncology

The CIBERFES, the CIBER’s thematic area for Frailty and Healthy Ageing, was set up in late 2016 with the aim of understanding, assessing and as far as possible palliating frailty and its main consequence, incapacity, as this is suffered by many older people.

It has twenty research groups working on the study of the biological mechanisms of healthy ageing and the processes leading to frailty and incapacity; the use of cohorts for studying the interaction between chronic disease, ageing and functional deterioration; preventive and therapeutic interventions in frailty and functional deterioration and models of care.

The CIBERCV (Cardiovascular diseases) pools the work done by over 480 scientists from 40 excellence research groups spread almost all over Spain, with major presence in the National Health System, as well as in our main Healthcare Research Institutes, Universities and Research Centres.

CIBERONC was created in early 2017 and is made up of 50 research groups from 27 institutions in the consortium including hospitals, universities and research centres.

The groups work jointly on six major Research Programmes: Colon and gastrointestinal cancer; Breast cancer; Lung cancer and cancer of the respiratory tracts; Haematological tumours; Low prevalence tumours and Molecular mechanisms of tumour progression.

The creation of this area represents a great chance to integrate the excellent basic research currently being done in Spain in clinical reality.

The CIBER for Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED) is made up of 55 research groups, with more than 630 researchers that focus their research on three programs: Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative dementias; Parkinson's, Huntington's and other degenerative motor disorders; and Amyotrophic Lateral Disease (ALS) and other neuromuscular disorders.

The research area for Infectious Diseases (CIBERINFEC) has been launched in 2022 to improve the health of society by reducing the negative impact of infectious diseases on the individual health. The 46 research groups are working on four programs: Global Health, emerging and re-emerging infections; antimicrobial resistance; HIV/AIDS and sexual transmission infections; and infections in non-HIV immunocompromised and healthcare-associated infections.