Agrotecnio and IRBLleida invest €1350,000 in their second joint call for Agrohealth projects

Today, the second edition of Agrohealth, the call for research projects in Agriculture, Food, Nutrition and Health at Agrotecnio and IRBLleida, was presented at the IRBLleida headquarters. Endowed with €135,000 from the funds of both centres, Agrohealth is a unique initiative in the Catalan research centres panorama, which combine their research capacity to develop collaborative projects that combine agri-food with biomedical research in favor of improving health and well-being.

More than 35 researchers from Agrotecnio and IRBLleida participated this morning in the presentation of the second Agrohealth call. During the day, preliminary results of the projects of the first call, still in progress, have been presented, which study various health problems such as obesity, anemia or food intoxications.

Diego Arango, director of IRBLleida, highlighted the willingness of both centers to "size Agrohealth according to the interest of research staff, seeking to attract more funds and trying to finance 'seed projects' that can be scaled up". For his part, José Antonio Bonet, director of Agritecnio, has pointed out "the particularity of Agrohealth, which is an original call to be the only joint call for two CERCA research centers in Catalonia. For Agrotecnio, it is strategic to focus on functional food, gastronomy and health, of course human, but also animal, plant and environmental."

Through AgroHealth, the two CERCA centres in Lleida want to create lasting synergies between their groups, which will thus be able to apply for more ambitious national and international calls. To participate, the research staff must have a doctorate, have a scientific or technical history consistent with the proposed project and be attached or have applied for membership before the deadline at Agrotecnio or IRBLleida.

The period of submission of applications will open from June 3 to 21, and the final resolution is expected to be published in December 2024. The projects will be able to last a maximum of two years and will begin in January 2025.