Looking for an EU project partner in computational drug discovery, AI or HPC?

BIO-HPC at UCAM is a research group with 25 years of HPC-driven drug discovery, a pipeline of 12 active programs, 8 patents and 2 clinical studies — available to join Horizon Europe, EIC and MSCA consortia as a research partner.

25+
Years of HPC drug discovery
6M€+
Competitive funding raised
12
Drug discovery programs
8
Patents
12
In-house software tools
200+
Peer-reviewed papers

What we bring to a consortium

A combination of methods, infrastructure and translational track record that few academic groups in Spain can match.

Computational drug discovery

End-to-end virtual screening, molecular docking, molecular dynamics, pharmacophore modelling and consensus methods applied to academic, biotech and pharma targets.

  • 12 in-house software tools (open-source)
  • Structure-based and ligand-based pipelines
  • ML-augmented enrichment (ESSENCE-Dock)

HPC capacity & AI on HPC

Direct access to UCAM’s HPC infrastructure and active allocations on national/European supercomputing networks (BSC, NLHPC, PSNC, HPC-Europa).

  • Interpretable ML / XAI models (SIBILA)
  • ADMET, QSAR and target-activity prediction
  • Containerised reproducible pipelines

Translation & IP

8 granted patents (incl. antiviral and anti-obesity), licensing track record and 2 ongoing clinical studies in Murcia. Commercial routes through UCAM’s Technology Transfer Office (OTRI).

  • Fascin inhibitor — colorectal cancer (clinical, 2022)
  • Pancreatic lipase — obesity (clinical, 2023)
  • Spin-off Inmolnova being established

Where we fit in Horizon Europe

Our methods and HPC infrastructure plug directly into multiple Horizon Europe clusters and EIC programmes.

Pillar 2 · Cluster 1

Health

Drug discovery against oncology, metabolic, infectious and neurological targets. Repurposing, AI-driven hit-to-lead, and translation to clinical studies.

Pillar 2 · Cluster 4

Digital, Industry & Space

AI on HPC, interpretable ML for biological and industrial data, GPU-accelerated computational chemistry.

Pillar 1

European Research Council

Available as Spanish host institution for ERC Starting, Consolidator or Advanced Grant applicants whose programme aligns with our HPC-driven drug discovery agenda.

EIC

Pathfinder, Transition, Accelerator

Methods-led partner for early-stage Pathfinder and validation/scale-up partner for Transition and Accelerator projects in the drug-discovery space.

Pillar 1

MSCA

Host institution for Postdoctoral Fellowships, Staff Exchanges and Doctoral Networks. See our MSCA hosting page.

Calls open to academia & SMEs

Industry-led consortia

We routinely partner with biotech and pharma SMEs as the computational/HPC arm of consortia. Through UCAM-OTRI we sign standard EC consortium agreements.

Selected EU-funded projects we’ve been part of

Concrete track record across Horizon 2020, FP7, PRACE and Spanish national calls — with UCAM either coordinating or as a research partner.

  • REVERT — Horizon 2020, grant agreement 848098. EU consortium of 14 institutions on AI-driven personalised medicine for metastatic colorectal cancer. UCAM was the computational/AI partner.
  • Eurolab-4-HPC — Horizon H2020-FETHPC-2014, grant agreement 671610. Business prototyping in HPC and computational chemistry, with UCAM as a project leader on the prototyping work.
  • TETRACOM — FP7 Technology Transfer in Computing Systems, transfer of computational-chemistry methods to industry (UCAM as leader).
  • PRACE DECI-10 — Distributed European Computing Initiative call on novel anticoagulants discovered with computational chemistry.
  • Nils Science and Sustainability — Iceland-Liechtenstein-Norway / Spain bilateral programme on hybrid AI for blood-anticoagulant discovery.
  • HPC-Europa3 — recurring transnational access calls for in-house and visiting researchers on European supercomputers.

Who we’ve sat at the same consortium table with

A representative list from the REVERT H2020 consortium and other joint projects — the kind of partners we’ve actually co-written work-packages and co-managed deliverables with.

EU academic & clinical centres

San Raffaele Roma · Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata · Università di Firenze · Azienda ULSS 4 Veneto Orientale (ProMIS) · Local Health Unit 3 “Serenissima” · “Paolo Giaccone” University Hospital of Palermo · ISPRO · Malmö University · Umeå University · Lund University Hospital · Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) · Institutul Regional de Oncologie Iași (IRO Iassy) · Spitalul Spiridon Iași · IMAGO-MOL · University of Łódź · Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und Prüfung (BAM) · Universidad Autónoma de Madrid · Universidad de Granada · Universitat de València · UPCT · Universidad de Almería · UPV.

European SME & industrial partners

GenXPro GmbH · BIOVARIANCE GmbH · Olomedia · Romsoft · SC EUROCLINIC · UTGAD Iași · Eurofins Villapharma · Hijos de Rivera · GOURA Investigaciones · Columba Investigaciones · FX Talentum · Aquaporins and Ingredients · ProtoQSAR · plus SME partners in agri-food and cosmetics on national contracts.

Public health & e-Infrastructure

Servicio Murciano de Salud (SMS) · Foundation for Health Training and Research of Murcia Region (FFIS) · Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) · HPC-Europa3 · PRACE · PSNC (Poznań, Poland) · NLHPC (Chile) · national Spanish supercomputing infrastructure (RES).

How to engage

From the first email to a signed consortium agreement, our route is short and direct.

  • 1. Email Prof. Horacio Pérez-Sánchez with your project idea and the call you are targeting (Horizon Europe, EIC, ERC, MSCA, national).
  • 2. We respond within 1–3 working days with a fit-assessment, suggested role in the consortium and a short capability statement for your proposal annex.
  • 3. We co-write the technical work-packages related to computational drug discovery, AI/ML or HPC. We can also support outreach, dissemination and ethics work-packages.
  • 4. UCAM’s Technology Transfer Office (OTRI) handles the legal and financial side: PIC, LEAR, accession forms, consortium agreement, IP clauses, etc.
  • 5. Once awarded, our team integrates immediately. The group operates as a small, agile research group with direct access from PI to junior researcher — no bureaucratic friction.
Get in touch

Have an open call or a draft proposal? Let’s talk.

We respond to all enquiries within a few working days. For time-sensitive calls (e.g. EIC cut-offs, MSCA deadlines), please mention the deadline in the subject line.

Prof. Horacio Pérez-Sánchez, PhD · Director, BIO-HPC Research Group · UCAM Universidad Católica de Murcia
hperez@ucam.edu