“la Caixa” foundation supports several key initiatives at the CRG, such as its International PhD Programme since 2008 and additional scientific and outreach activities since 2014: the partnership between the CRG and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to jointly run the European Genome Phenome Archive (EGA) and the CRG’s first citizen science initiative ‘Saca la Lengua’ (Stick out your tongue).

The “AXA Chair in risk prediction in age-related diseases” was created in 2014 for a period of 15 years with a 1 million-euro endowment. Dr. Ben Lehner was appointed the first chair holder to further his work in the development of personalized medicine to better protect individuals against the unique risks they face in diseases such as cancer.

Novartis engages in extensive collaboration with the CRG. Since 2003, the company has supported the organization of CRG Annual Symposia and backed an annual fellowship for postdoctoral researchers in the field of genomics from 2004 to 2012. A new mobility programme CRG-Novartis-Africa was set up in conjunction with the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) in 2012. The programme currently includes other research institutions and universities in Africa and allows three excellent late-stage PhD students or early-stage Postdoctoral fellows to do research and continue their training at the CRG for six months every year.

Fundación Botín, through its area of Science and in collaboration with the Technology and Business Development office at the CRG, promotes the translation into the market of research results produced in the labs of Dr. Juan Valcárcel (currently) and Dr. Luis Serrano (2007-2013). They do this by providing economic and management resources to identify promising ideas and results early, assessing their potential and best mode of protection through intellectual and industrial property rights, and finding the necessary technology and industry partners or investors to help technologies or products move forward into the market for the final benefit of society.

The Ramón Areces Foundation provides three-year funding for a highly talented young postdoc to carry out research at CRG. The successful postdoc, selected from a competitive call, is currently Xianghua Li, who works in Dr. Ben Lehner’s lab.

The Banc Sabadell Foundation provides support to the CRG’s traveling scientific picture exhibition launched in 2013 “TREE OF LIFE. The complexity of life: from the cell to a living organism”. It was first shown in Alella, near Barcelona, then in Alicante and Barcelona (Palau Robert) in 2014 and on the premises of the Government of Catalonia Delegate’s Office of Girona in 2015. The exhibition has also been on display as part of the celebration of “Researcher’s Night” in Barcelona (CCCB) and during Open Day at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park. Overall, the exhibit has received over 20,000 visitors.

Fundació Catalunya-La Pedrera supports vocational training activities for young talented students to nurture their interest in science and pursuit of a scientific career. Key activities include scientific summer stays at MónNatura Pirineus and at the CRG, where the students take part in sessions and events focused on scientific topics with the aim of eventually proposing and developing their own project idea.

The Fundació Marató TV3 funds six research projects led by CRG investigators related to different editions of the telethon: three projects from the 2012 edition on ‘Cancer’ (Thomas Graf, Pia Cosma and Susana de la Luna), two projects from the 2013 edition on ‘Neurodegenerative diseases’ (Fátima Gebauer and Luciano Di Croce) and one from the 2014 edition on ‘Heart disease’ (Gian G. Tartaglia).

Worldwide Cancer Research is a charity which fund research into any type of cancer anywhere in the world. At the CRG, WWCR is currently supporting Bill Keyes’ initiative to investigate the role of the chromatin remodeler Lsh in skin cancer (2015-2018).

Banco Santander funds a joint project shared by the CSIC, the Royal Botanical Garden in Madrid, and the CRG (Toni Gabaldón), which aims to sequence the DNA of the olive tree for the first time.

The relationship between CRG and the Jerome Lejeune Foundation began many years ago. They provided support to several of Mara Dierssen’s research initiatives linked to the identification of molecular and genetic bases in several pathologies accompanied by mental retardation: Rett Syndrome, Fragile-X Syndrome, William-Beuren Syndrome and Down Syndrome. Dierssen was also the recipient of the international Sisley-Jerome Lejeune award, in its first edition in 2010. More recently, they awarded a grant to Eduard Sabidó’s project on the elucidation of the mechanism of action of epigallocatechin-3-gallate as a therapeutic agent on the cognitive phenotype in Down Syndrome mice models (2015-2017).

The Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) has supported a number of research projects and initiatives of CRG scientists over the years. In 2015, Pedro Vizán (in Luciano Di Croce’s lab) was awarded the AECC Oncologic Research Fellowship, for a 3-year project that seeks to identify and ‘attack’ stem cells involved in cancer.