The Generative Brain
BIOEF, Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (Fundacion Vasca de Innovacion e Investigacion Sanitarias) logo

BIOEF, Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research (Fundacion Vasca de Innovacion e Investigacion Sanitarias)

BIOEF is a public sector foundation of the Basque Government Department of Health, set up in 2002 to promote research and innovation in the Basque public health system, and governed by a board of Basque Government and Osakidetza officials. It owns the Biobanco Vasco, whose neurological tissue bank is the Basque Brain Bank. It co-signed the 2017 agreement that created IIS Bioaraba. It also manages the grant calls funded by the EiTB Maratoia public fundraising marathon, which in recent years covered neurodegenerative disease and Alzheimer and other dementias. Prion work has received BIOEF and EiTB Maratoia money twice on the record: the 2025 Basque study of genetic prion transmission and a 2018 GSS iPS cell study. It runs no prion specific programme. Information only.

Key facts

  • BIOEF is a public sector foundation of the Basque Autonomous Community, created in 2002 by the Department of Health as its tool for health research and innovation, and now tied to the department under Decreto 319/2024.
  • Its board (Patronato) is made up of Basque Government and Osakidetza representatives, chaired by the Deputy Minister for Health Administration and Financing.
  • Its stated functions include supporting health research planning and evaluation, promoting research aligned with health system priorities, integrated management of biological samples, and transfer of results.
  • BIOEF owns the Biobanco Vasco: it constituted the biobank, reports yearly to the authorities and appoints its scientific director.
  • The BIOEF board agreed the Basque DNA bank proposal in September 2005, the start of the biobank; the biobank, under BIOEF ownership and board governance, was entered in the ISCIII biobank registry in July 2012.
  • BIOEF was one of four signatories of the 2017 agreement that created IIS Bioaraba, with the University of the Basque Country, Osakidetza and the health department.
  • BIOEF manages the research calls funded by EiTB Maratoia, a fundraiser with the Basque public broadcaster; part of its management costs are taken from the money raised before the call.
  • The EiTB Maratoia 2016 call for neurodegenerative disease research totalled 376,948.80 euros for 2 to 3 year projects with at least one Basque health system partner.
  • The EiTB Maratoia 2021 call for Alzheimer and other dementias totalled 1,104,477.46 euros over 2022 to 2024, open to accredited Basque research agents, with external scientific review worth up to 60 of 107 points.
  • That money went to eight projects at six centres, announced in March 2023; titles and leads were not listed in the report.
  • The 2025 Eur J Neurol study from Bioaraba and CIC bioGUNE on transmission of genetic prion disease lists a Basque Foundation for Innovation and Health Research EiTB Maratoia grant, BIO22/ALZ/012, held by the Bioaraba first author.
  • The BIO22/ALZ code matches other BIOEF grants from the 2022 Alzheimer call, so the prion study grant likely came from the dementias call rather than a prion call; this is an inference from the code.
  • A 2018 study of iPS cell cultures from a GSS Y218N case, with IBEC, University of Barcelona and CIC bioGUNE prion lab authors, lists EiTB Maratoia (BioEF) grant BIO12/AL/004 among about 20 funders.
  • A literature search found only these two prion papers acknowledging BIOEF or EiTB Maratoia funding.
  • Neither the 2017 nor the 2022 call names prion disease.

Timeline

  1. 2002BIOEF created by the Basque Department of Health.
  2. 2005BIOEF board agrees the Basque DNA bank proposal that became the Biobanco Vasco.
  3. 2012Biobanco Vasco, owned by BIOEF, entered in the ISCIII biobank registry.
  4. 2017BIOEF co-signs the agreement creating IIS Bioaraba.
  5. 2017GSS Y218N iPS study acknowledging EiTB Maratoia (BioEF) grant BIO12/AL/004 published online.
  6. 2017EiTB Maratoia 2016 neurodegenerative disease call published, managed by BIOEF.
  7. 2022EiTB Maratoia 2021 Alzheimer and other dementias call published, managed by BIOEF.
  8. 2023Eight projects at six centres awarded 1,104,477 euros from that call.
  9. 2025Genetic prion transmission study acknowledging grant BIO22/ALZ/012 published.
  10. 2026BIOEF approves its 2025 to 2028 Basque language plan; EiTB Maratoia 2025 is listed as dedicated to ageing research.
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