Two UAB-CIE Affiliated Centres Receive Funding from the Government's Prova't Programme

19/01/2012

Funding provided by the Prova't Programme is a pioneering initiative addressed to Catalan research centres and offered by the Institute of Research Centres of Catalonia (CERCA), member of the Department of Economy and Knowledge, and with the support of the Secretary of Universities and Research. The first set of funds includes a total of 1.5 million Euros set aside by the Government of Catalonia to finance seven different research projects.

Among those receiving aids are two centres affiliated to the UAB Campus of International Excellence (UAB-CIE): Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN). VHIO will dedicate the funding to working on new therapeutic strategies for glioblastoma, an extremely aggressive brain tumour with very bad prognosis. ICN will dedicate the funding to developing an advanced generation of disinfectants for hospital use with antimicrobian effects and short and long-term effects.

The Prova't progamme is the first to dedicate funds to promoting the transfer of research results obtained by research centres in Catalonia to the production sector. The forty centres belonging to the CERCA system are currently one of the main driving forces in cutting-edge research existing in Catalonia.

The 1.5 million Euros stem from the European Regional Development Fund and go to financing up to 50% of the total budget of each project chosen. Prova't will aid in shaping the prototype or laboratory results obtained in each project with the aim of presenting them to possible private investors needed to make these products reach the market.

Other centres receiving funding are the Institute for Geomatics, the Institute for Biomedical Research August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), the Institute for Photonic Sciences (ICFO), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the International Centre for Numeric Methods in Engineering (CIMNE).