As mandated in the last call,8 the aim of the RIC is to reduce the impact of cardiovascular disease on survival and quality of life in Spain by promoting biomedical research and translating the results into daily clinical practice. The training of researchers is also an important part of the mandate. The RIC is organized as a single network5–7 and incorporates a system of solid and representative governance. It includes a training program and uses a matrix structure of longitudinal actions for scientific development in combination with cross-sectional measures to facilitate those actions. The 2012 call established a requirement for priority research programs in each network (Table). The overall network coordinators were responsible for identifying those programs and selecting individuals to lead them. Together, they then established specific research projects and decided on the most appropriate groups to carry them out. Research groups that had participated in the 3 previous cardiovascular networks were invited to participate as well as other groups that had not participated in the earlier networks but were considered necessary for the new project. The appropriateness and budgets of the invited groups were subjected to a process of external and anonymous evaluation. The final version of the RIC includes more than 800 researchers from all regions of Spain, organized in 64 research groups (Fig. 1).9

Figure 1.

Map of the 75 centers corresponding to the 64 research groups that compose the Red de Investigación Cardiovascular.

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The organizational structure of the RIC (Fig. 2) ensures maximum representation of all groups and is made up of the following elements: a) the General Assembly, which includes all groups; b) the Governing Council, which is composed of program coordinators, members of the subcommittees (scientific, training, and communication), the Executive Committee, and the head of the Technical Secretariat; c) an executive body, the Executive Committee, which, through the General Coordinator, is responsible for the overall coordination and operative functioning of the RIC, and d) an External Scientific Committee, which advises the network and ensures a measure of external control.

Figure 2.

Organizational governance of the Cardiovascular Research Network.

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The network is organized into 7 major programs focusing on the main cardiovascular diseases.10 Each program is required to develop a 4-year research project,9 which is evaluated by international experts. The projects focus on specific issues using planned work packages and involving several coordinated groups. Objectives are specified and project implementation is defined in terms of milestones and deliverables, thereby allowing evaluation of progress.

One of the strategic directives of the RIC is to generate a comprehensive, explicit, and evaluable scientific program that goes beyond a simple summation of the 7 projects comprising the different programs. There are compelling reasons for this. First, the spirit of the ISCIII call was clearly to integrate the preexisting cardiovascular networks into a single organizational structure, rather than 7 different structures. Second, there was a need to ensure cooperation between the groups in the different programs. Finally, it was considered essential to have a single, common scientific platform, with high strategic value. The 3 hypotheses underlying the RIC are: a) that there are molecular mechanisms that are common to different cardiovascular diseases; b) that knowledge of distinct cardiovascular diseases and syndromes is scattered across different specialist areas and that communication between those areas is less than ideal, and c) that tackling many cardiovascular research objectives requires a large critical mass and a high number of patients.

Consequently, the scientific focus of the network for the next 4 years will be very much on solving the problems associated with coronary disease in all its forms (programs 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7), on cardiovascular risk factors, with special attention to high blood pressure and diabetes mellitus (programs 2 and 7), on nonischemic myocardial disease (programs 1, 4, 6, and 7), diseases of the aorta (program 3), and on familial heart diseases (programs 3 and 4). As regards the creation and promotion of research tools, the objectives of the scientific program are: a) to create a large collection of commonly used samples, which will be stored in biobanks at the different participating centers and which be accessible to different groups and network programs; b) to build a stronger base of unique technology platforms with high strategic value; c) to create a resource base for laboratory research (including genetically modified models); d) to organize a platform to support clinical research, and e) to establish lines of communication and cooperation among groups involved in laboratory and clinical research. Objectives in the comprehensive scientific program of the RIC are designed to be met according to a preset schedule. The implementation of the network's overall scientific program will be evaluated annually in terms of how well it has met its objectives and the amount of cooperative activity generated at all levels.

Given that advances generated by basic cardiovascular research are clearly not being adequately transferred to the health care system and the population,11 one of the general objectives of the RIC is to provide scientists with training in the methodology, implementation, and management of research, the aim being to facilitate translation from basic knowledge to advances in social and health care.12–14

The training program is designed to: a) provide basic researchers with the knowledge and skills to carry out research intended to convert basic discoveries into new models or clinical paradigms; b) provide clinical investigators with the knowledge and skills to transform new models or paradigms into diagnostic and therapeutic advances that will help renew clinical practice; c) provide epidemiological researchers with the knowledge and skills to orient diagnostic and therapeutic advances toward prevention and the preservation of population health, and d) equip scientific managers with the knowledge and skills to ensure that advances in health and clinical care generate social wealth in its broadest sense.

The 3 tools used to implement this aspect of the RIC are: a) classroom academic courses; b) virtual interactive meetings, and c) a scientist exchange program. The academic element consists of 2 courses per year on “Advances in Translational Research” and “Biomedical Research Management”. All members of the network centers participate in these courses, which are organized in collaboration with scientific societies such as the Spanish Society of Cardiology and the Spanish Arteriosclerosis Society and/or national research centers such as the National Cardiovascular Research Center. The courses are held at a single venue. A second group of face-to-face academic courses are held in the respective headquarters of the individual centers within the RIC and take into account the teaching plans of the institutions involved. The number and frequency of these courses varies. The program of virtual interactive meetings aims to maintain a steady flow of information and training between RIC centers, using various types of audiovisual communication.

The scientist exchange program is the main instrument within the training strand of the RIC and is based on movement of RIC researchers among centers. Scientists can spend time at RIC centers other than their own to work on cooperative projects that involve both their own and the receiving center, or they can spend time at a centers with a RIC platform, in order to learn how they work and how they are used in research. A third option is to spend time at centers external to the RIC. These centers may be domestic or foreign and the objective is to acquire a methodology that is not available in any of the RIC centers but which is required for the development of projects within the RIC research agenda. The management training program is overseen by a subcommittee responsible for the approval and dissemination of the various plans, the allocation of funds necessary for their implementation, and the evaluation of results.

Organization, scientific productivity, and training will be fundamental in determining the future performance of the RIC, but its success will also depend on other strategic actions.

Such actions include the enhancement of platforms used across the research groups, ie: a) computing resources and databases; b) biobanks and collections; c) proteomics; d) genomics; e) metabolomics; f) cardiac electrophysiology; g) extraction and normalization of DNA and other proteins; h) imaging data assessment laboratory, and i) an animal facility for the use of genetically modified animals. One of the key tools for the sustainability and development of the RIC is the Foundation for Network Research in Cardiovascular Disease (Fundación para la Investigación en Red en enfermedades CArdioVAsculares [FIRCAVA]), which was established to promote and observe the RIC under the rules of the RETIC15 and with the agreement of the ISCIII. Through its legal status and agile management, FIRCAVA is intended to facilitate research and training, and to raise funds beyond those that can be obtained in public calls. FIRCAVA already provides several services, including an academic CRO (contract research organisation). It is also accredited by the European Union and acts as a research center with the ability to apply, develop, coordinate, implement, and manage European research projects in which RIC research centers can participate via FIRCAVA.

The network is further supported by an interactive web portal that allows the dissemination and exchange of information and provides shared computing resources for the coordination and management of cooperative research.9 The RIC also has a press and communications office whose brief is to disseminate the results of research and training to the scientific community, and to society more generally.