A decade after the Biosanitary Institute of Salamanca has started and, given the results obtained – it was recently accredited for the third time -, Castilla y León has decided to redouble its commitment to these infrastructures as “catalysts” for health research and innovation in the Community and to create three more. An “umbrella” that will allow health professionals who provide care, but who also wish to develop their role in the laboratory, to do so in a network and with support in both managerial and bureaucratic procedures. The “challenge” is, as indicated by the Director General in charge of this area within the Ministry, Sonia Martinto be able to “double” the critical mass of “consolidated” researchers and thus go from 1,000 to 2,000, as specified in the strategy which will mark the stages of health research until 2027.
And in Castilla y León there are 25,000 potential workers with academic training in the field of Health who could also dedicate part of their time to studying therapeutic and technological advances that ultimately lead to the improvement of patients and the fight against certain diseases. The range opens up to primary care, but also to disciplines that are not only related to health and that can make a great contribution to the field of health, such as engineering. Universities will also be included so that the most practical areas converge with that of knowledge and clinicians “take advantage” of basic research to develop projects or clinical studies.
This is precisely what three new biosanitary institutes in Castilla y León, located in Valladolid, León and Burgos. Structures whose deployment and filming will begin in this legislature, but which will require at least “a decade” to consolidate accredited results, of “quality” or “excellence”. It is therefore a long-distance race to get the machine going, says Martín, to encourage professionals to participate, to support consolidated and emerging groups that are already operating and to help obtain funding for national and international projects, as well as to put them in contact with the private sphere to promote the exploitation and commercialization of the results. This without “forgetting” research in “more recent areas such as precision or advanced therapies” and more vulnerable and perhaps more minority groups such as rare diseases.
They will also do so “in a network” and in a “coordinated manner”, also with the collaboration of the Institute of Soria Health Sciencesto be able to share the results and that they can “evolve” from the most local to the regional. So that the results obtained in one part of the Community can also reach the rest and that, for example, patients from all over the territory can participate in clinical trials.
The one in Valladolid (IbioVall) took off last October in the facilities of the Rondilla building of the Clinical Hospital of the capital. It has already approved its organic structure and 74 research groups interested in being part of it – although they will continue to belong to their respective institutions. In this case, it will focus especially on the field of biotechnology, taking advantage of the “powerful” degrees available in its engineering faculties.
In the case of León, the Authority and the University signed a collaboration agreement last April to launch an infrastructure that will be located in the health complex of the capital of León and that includes the Bierzo region. IBioLEON will opt for the One Health approach, Martín explained, because one of the most important assets of his university is its veterinary and environmental education. There are already 54 research groups interested in participating. Finally, the one in Burgos will be inaugurated in 2025, with the Aranda de Duero and Miranda de Ebro hospitals, focused, in this case, on the importance of industry 4.0 in the province.
All of them will join Ibsal, the Salamanca institute specializing in areas such as cancer, oncohematology or cardiology, which has recently been “reaccredited” for the second time, with increasingly “demanding” “audits” that measure its international positioning. – these infrastructures must strengthen ties with groups from other countries – and the translation of the results to the final patient, “something that Salamanca has achieved almost one hundred percent”. All of them will seek to increase the scientific production that is already giving “good results” in Castile and León and will look for patents and clinical trials that provide solutions to “real problems”. “It is not so much the quantity as the quality”, concludes Martín.
