Cristóbal Belda
By reason of his position as Director of the ISCIII, Mr Cristóbal Belda is also Vice-President of the Board of Trustees of the Public Sector Foundations “Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC)”, “Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Oncológicas Carlos III (CNIO)” and “Centro de Investigación en Enfermedades Neurológicas (CIEN)”, as well as President of the Governing Council of the Consortium “Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER)”.
Until his designation as Director of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, he has been Deputy Director General of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (2018-present), with direct responsibility for the operational management of the Strategic Action in Health, the main action that coordinates and promotes biomedical research in Spain. He is a specialist in Medical Oncology and PhD in Medicine, expert in the design and execution of highly complex clinical trials and cancer biomarkers and co-author of more than 100 international articles, dozens of book chapters and director of 9 PhD Thesis. Since 1999 he has been dedicated to the care of individuals and families diagnosed with brain tumours and lung cancer, as well as research to improve their quality of life. Recently, he has been the Study Chair and corresponding author of the world’s first clinical trial of combination vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 (COMBIVACS), published in The Lancet in June 2021.
In 2010 he started his managerial profile as head of the innovation node at Hospital Universitario La Paz. Since then he has held various positions of responsibility in research and teaching management in public and private organisations, combining this activity with teaching, care and research. He has been director of the Escuela Nacional de Sanidad, director of the Instituto Mixto Universitario UNED-ISCIII and, from 2015 until his arrival at ISCIII in 2018, executive director of the HM Hospitales Foundation and director of R&D&I of the HM Hospitales group of hospitals.
From the teaching point of view, he has been associate professor of Health Sciences at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Universidad San Pablo CEU. He is a regular contributor to master’s degrees and postgraduate courses at various Spanish universities, focusing both on Oncology and training in health management and research.
From a social point of view, he is a trustee of the Fundación de Estudios Médicos de Molina de Segura (Murcia), an entity aimed at promoting scientific vocations in young people. He is a member of the Social Council of the UNED, representing social interests. Finally, he is a member of the Academic Council of the FIDE Foundation, a think-tank oriented towards the multidisciplinary debate of legal-economic issues.
