The BBVA Foundation launches a new round of the Leonardo Grants for scientific and cultural projects
The BBVA Foundation is once again helping talented people through the annual Leonardo Grants for scientific researchers and cultural creatives. This initiative seeks to make innovative projects a reality, and is one of the wide range of grants the bank offers to researchers, students and scientists throughout the year.
The Leonardo Grants were created to help researchers and creatives aged between 30 and 45 at a key stage in their careers. They are designed to help professionals whose personal dedication and advanced training is starting to bear fruit, but who need solid support to continue on their path to excellence.
The ultimate objective of these grants is to foster personal projects that are original and relevant, and that have great transformational potential in a wide range of areas, from basic science through to literature and music. The projects usually last between 6 and 18 months.
The advantage of the Leonardo Grants is that the recipients are free to use the funds assigned to them for their projects as they see fit. There will be at least 55 grants, with an approximate value of 40,000 euros. The total budget is 2,200,000 euros. The recipients will become part of an ecosystem of almost 200 researchers and creatives who the BBVA Foundation has been supporting through these Grants since 2014, creating a network of excellence.
Science and culture
This group of talented and innovative professionals will join an even larger group of researchers, artists and students who the BBVA Foundation is supporting through a range of assistance programs throughout the year, in Spain and abroad. This is the case with the BBVA Foundation grant program for Latin America, which helps ten young people from the region study for a postgraduate degree in Spain on protected natural habitats. This initiative is complemented by the program of medical grants for young people from Latin America in collaboration with the Carolina Foundation.
Meanwhile, the BBVA Foundation’s assistance to scientific research teams is fostering investigation in areas as diverse as bio-medicine, ecology and the biology of conservation, the digital society and economy, digital humanities, and big data (the statistical and electronic processing of massive databases).
The BBVA Foundation also supports music, supporting the musicians in the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE) every year through the JONDE-BBVA Foundation Grants program, which enables them to enjoy international training.
In the artistic realm, the Multiverse Grants for Video-art Creation support an art form that is struggling for resources and investment in Spain. The BBVA Foundation is aware of this need, and every year provides support through these grants for mature and complex projects that would otherwise not be feasible.