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- IRB Barcelona has received €1.58M in EU MSCA COFUND funding to launch the IRB-DRIVE doctoral programme.
- The programme will train 10 international PhD fellows through interdisciplinary academic, clinical, and industry pathways.
IRB Barcelona has been awarded a €1,584,000 grant from the European Research Executive Agency (REA) under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) COFUND scheme. This prestigious funding will support IRB-DRIVE, a comprehensive five-year doctoral programme designed to attract high-capacity international talent and equip them for impactful professional careers in biomedicine. The programme, which officially enters its preparatory phase this year, will offer 10 four-year fellowships through two competitive international calls.
The core objective of IRB-DRIVE is to "drive" future leaders of biomedicine toward research and professional success by offering a novel, fellow-centric structured itinerary. Fellows will conduct their research within one of IRB Barcelona’s 29 research groups and 6 interdisciplinary research nodes, benefiting from a holistic support system that uniquely prioritizes wellbeing and mental health alongside technical excellence.
This initiative builds upon the institute's long-standing "HR Excellence in Research" award and its successful track record with previous MSCA programmes.
A standout feature of IRB-DRIVE is its "3i" dimension—international, intersectoral, and interdisciplinary—strengthened by a network of 14 associated partners. These partners include the University of Barcelona (the degree-awarding entity), clinical research centres like VHIO and IDIBAPS, and industry leaders such as Nostrum Biodiscovery and Nuage Therapeutics. Fellows will choose from three career-driven specialisation tracks: Research Valorisation, Research Translation, and Research Management, ensuring they are highly sought-after by both academia and the private sector upon graduation. The first cohort of students is will start their journey on 1 September 2026.
About IRB Barcelona
The Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) pursues a society free of disease. To this end, it conducts multidisciplinary research of excellence to cure cancer and other diseases linked to ageing. It establishes technology transfer agreements with the pharmaceutical industry and major hospitals to bring research results closer to society, and organises a range of science outreach activities to engage the public in an open dialogue. IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 researchers and more than 30 nationalities. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence since 2011, IRB Barcelona is a CERCA centre and member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).
