Overview
- The national government announced an official program to raise dedicated R&D for women’s health to about €18 million per year, a threefold increase from current levels.
- Implementation will be routed through Spain’s main research agencies with three pillars: a CDTI scheme for company and centre R&D, a new Instituto de Salud Carlos III financing line for collaborative projects, and a dedicated line of predoctoral contracts at the Agencia Estatal de Investigación.
- The program sets clear clinical priorities for funding, naming chronic pain, autoimmune and thyroid diseases, cardiovascular and mental health, menopause, and hormonal disorders as focus areas.
- Details on the timing of calls, application rules and disbursement were not released with the announcement and will be defined by the three agencies as the next steps.
- Officials framed the move as a corrective to decades-long underrepresentation of women in biomedical research, a gap that advocates say has left diagnoses and treatments poorer for many women and that the program seeks to address through focused funding and researcher support.