Prisms & Problems Program 2025

The global amount of funding under this call is set at 3 million euros.

Projects submitted under this call will have a maximum execution term of 24 months from the signing of the acceptance statement setting out the terms and conditions of the funding. The project must be completed by the end of this period.

Projects should be submitted by a single principal investigator, who will meet the following conditions:

• Spanish national or resident in Spain in the terms envisaged in these call conditions.
• In possession of a PhD at the time of submitting the application.
• Maintain a public service or contractual employment relationship with a university institution or public or private non-profit research organization, in every case headquartered in Spain. This relationship must persist through the period envisaged for the implementation of the project. Any transfer of the approved project to a different center due to a move by the principal investigator will require the express permission of the BBVA Foundation.

Remaining team members may belong to public or private research institutions or centers in any country. In the event that the issue to be studied is within the remit of public agencies, the team should incorporate a member of the agency in question or, at least, include its analytical perspective in the project’s methodological approach to the project.

Evaluation will take into account the suitability of the team’s composition for the goals being pursued.

Individuals participating in this call may only do so through a single project.

Principal investigators may not be simultaneously in receipt of other funding (for individuals or groups) granted by the BBVA Foundation. 

Projects must be original, unpublished, and pursue the generation of new knowledge on the object of research. The project narrative should expressly state what it hopes to deliver in regard to the problem addressed, along with its applicability.

If other grants have been sought or obtained for the same project, this should be expressly stated, along with the amount and nature of the funding.

Applications should be submitted in Spanish or English by the principal investigator, with the prior permission of the organization or agency to which they are attached, using the online form available on the BBVA Foundation website: www.fbbva.es.

Besides the general details of the project, applicants must provide the following documentation via the online form:

• Copy of principal investigator’s ID document or passport.
• If the principal investigator is a national of a non-European Union country, they should give proof of long-term residence in Spain by furnishing a copy of a current foreign national’s identity card.
• If the principal investigator is a national of another European Union member state, they should give proof of having been resident in Spain for at least three years on the date of submitting the application, furnishing their registration certificate of Union citizen and a municipal certificate of residence attesting to their residence in Spain over the last three years.
• Project narrative, with format at the applicant’s discretion but including all of the following headings:
  1. Background and objectives.
  2. Research methodology.
  3. Experience and suitability of the research group.
  4. Expected results and applicability.
  5. Work plan and calendar.
  6. Results dissemination and utilization plan.

• Total gross budget, duly itemized and including all applicable taxes and withholdings.
• The distribution of funding heads will be analyzed with reference to the nature of the project.

No remuneration is contemplated for team members, unless they have been specifically hired to work on the project.

• A short curriculum vitae of all research group members (5 pages max. per CV).

On submitting their completed form, applicants will receive a confirmation message from the BBVA Foundation with a reference number that they should quote in any subsequent correspondence.

The submission period will run from December 30, 2025 to March 31, 2026 at 13:00 (Spanish standard time).

The completed application must have been received in full no later than the above date and time.

If the application contains rectifiable errors, the BBVA Foundation will inform the applicant to this effect, giving a non-extendible period of 10 calendar days as of this notification in which to correct them, so the application may enter the evaluation and selection process.

The evaluation process will take into account the originality, analytical significance and applicability of the project, as well as the suitability of the CV profiles of the principal investigator and remaining team members.

The selection of awardee projects will be in the charge of experts on the issues set out in section 1 of these call conditions, who will arrive at their decisions impartially, after joint deliberation, relying on the best metrics of the specialist field and with measures in place to prevent conflicts of interest.

All deliberations will be kept confidential.

The resolution of the call will be publicly announced no later than September 30, 2026. The call may be declared wholly or partially void and the award decision will not be open to appeal.

The resolution will be posted on the BBVA Foundation website, www.fbbva.es, with details of the awardee projects.

There will be no further correspondence or communication with applicants whose projects were not among those selected.

No itemized or individual information will be provided on the submissions received or the subsequent deliberations.

The organization to which the principal investigator of the selected project is attached will sign an acceptance statement with the BBVA Foundation setting out the conditions of the funding, which will cover at least the following points:

• Amount of funding and form of payment.
• Presentation of progress reports on the project’s milestones and its final outcomes.
• Utilization, dissemination and publication rights in respect of project results.
• Arrangements for cases of non-compliance.

The signing of this statement will be a nonnegotiable pre-condition for release of the funding.

Selected projects must have their starting dates no later than October 31, 2026.

The principal investigator must provide the BBVA Foundation with an interim report on the project’s implementation and budgetary execution using the template facilitated for this purpose.

At the project’s conclusion, the principal investigator will submit a final report using the template provided by the BBVA Foundation. The report should cover the activities carried out, the results obtained and a justification of total expenditures, signed off by the organization to which the principal investigator is attached

The interim and final reports on the project will be assessed by a committee of experts appointed by the BBVA Foundation. This committee may request written clarifications and, where appropriate, call the principal investigator and/or other team members to meetings to further the performance of its review.

Any significant change to the approved project must be notified to and expressly authorized by the BBVA Foundation.

The funding awarded will be paid to the account of the organization to which the principal investigator is attached in various installments, according to the milestones of the research project. Ten percent of the total funding will be released after the delivery and favorable assessment of the project’s final report.

Results of the projects will be in the public domain and will be assured the widest possible dissemination to society through diverse channels (publications, lectures and meetings).

The BBVA Foundation reserves the right to publish and/or disseminate the results of the selected projects in the form of working papers, electronic documents or books, under its own publishing imprint or in collaboration with academic publishers, provided that this does not affect publication in scientific journals of the researchers’ own choice, where the support received should figure as follows: “Title of project – 2025 Prisms & Problems Program, BBVA Foundation.”

The BBVA Foundation may request the collaboration of researchers in activities to disseminate the project’s results. Schedules in such cases will be arranged by mutual consent.

The act of participating in this call signifies the acceptance of its conditions and resolution, which will not be open to appeal, and the renunciation of any claim in its respect.

Exceptionally, the BBVA Foundation reserves the right to make changes in the wording of these conditions, for duly justified reasons, for the sole purpose of clarifying their content, without such changes in any case implying a substantial or arbitrary alteration of the same. The text of the conditions will be available for the duration of this call on the BBVA Foundation website: www.fbbva.es.