The challenge of advancing oncology research
Cancer remains one of the greatest scientific, medical, and social challenges of our time. Advancing its understanding and treatment requires complex, costly research that, in many cases, carries a high degree of uncertainty.
Traditional public funding systems, essential but limited by their very nature, cannot always assume the uncertainty that accompanies the most disruptive and risky ideas, nor respond with the agility that biomedical innovation requires.
The key role of scientific philanthropy
It is in this space that foundations play an irreplaceable role: they enable anticipation, risk-taking, investment in emerging talent, and acceleration of knowledge translation from the laboratory to the patient.
Scientific philanthropy is therefore not a complement to the system, but a strategic driver for oncology research to advance with greater ambition, speed, and real impact.
25 years driving talent and knowledge
In our 25-year history, FERO Foundation has demonstrated that impact in science is measured not only in euros, but in vision, rigor, and the ability to transform talent into progress for patients.
With a cumulative investment of just over 30 million euros, at FERO we have been able to identify promising projects, support them at key moments, and turn them into engines of innovation that have attracted many more resources, both public and private.
It is a clear example of how strategic philanthropy can multiply its effect and change the ecosystem.
A model that multiplies impact
Our scientific processes and programs are aligned with the standards of major international foundations. We operate on a different budgetary scale, but with the same level of rigor, scientific governance, and ambition.
A footprint that goes beyond investment
And, above all, with an impact that transcends direct investment: each FERO project generates knowledge, trains people, builds teams, and leaves installed capacity in the system.
That is our true footprint.
FERO’s scientific strategy is structured around three pillars that have proven solid and coherent over time, and that we intend to maintain as the backbone of our program:
1. Investing in talent: Scientific grants and awards
Our focus is on supporting young researchers and physician-scientists with a scientific vocation. We prefer to concentrate resources at critical stages of scientific careers, where an opportunity can change an entire trajectory.
FERO has demonstrated that supporting a person at the right moment can translate into decades of impact on patients, hospitals, and health systems.
2. Being where the best science happens: Institutional partnerships
We are present in some of the country’s best oncology centers and we want to maintain, strengthen, and connect these partnerships in a network. The future lies in cross-center projects, in sharing knowledge, and in building common platforms.
In this framework, the commitment to molecular diagnostics and talent attraction programs is strategic: it is where research becomes clinical decision-making, and where discovery transforms into real innovation for patients.
3. A community with purpose: FERO Academy
The Academy is probably where we achieve the greatest impact per euro invested. We not only provide training in leadership, communication, or transfer, but we create community. A scientific community that recognizes itself as part of something greater, that collaborates, that supports one another, and that begins to connect with areas beyond academia: industry, entrepreneurship, society.
Our ambition is to strengthen it, give it greater visibility, and turn it into a reference platform that accompanies our researchers throughout their careers.
Results that support a strategy
This strategy is not theoretical: it is built on real results. Researchers supported by FERO have achieved:
- More than 100 million euros in additional funding from other foundations and funding agencies.
- Creating spin-offs.
- Bringing new drugs and biomarkers to clinical practice.
- Leading international trials.
- Building teams that are now hubs for attracting talent and creating scientific knowledge.
FERO does not only fund projects:
it builds ecosystem.
An external scientific committee of international reference
To validate this roadmap, the Foundation has an
External Scientific Advisory Board
composed of oncology professionals with high international recognition:
- Susan Galbraith, Executive Vice President of Oncology at AstraZeneca, global leader in therapeutic innovation.
- Antoni Ribas, director of the Tumor Immunology Program at UCLA, pioneer in immunotherapy.
- Eva Hernando-Monge, professor at NYU, leading expert in molecular biology of melanoma.
- Andrew Tutt, director of the Breast Cancer Now Toby Robins Research Centre in London, key figure in the development of PARP therapies.
A clear and compelling evaluation
After an exhaustive analysis of our program, their evaluation has been unequivocal: FERO Foundation’s scientific strategy is solid, rigorous, and oriented toward maximum impact.
They have highlighted the quality of our processes, the coherence of our vision, and, especially, FERO’s distinctive value: the scientific community we have built.
A cohesive, collaborative community with international reach, which constitutes the Foundation’s greatest asset and the main driver for continuing to transform excellent research into real benefit for patients.
