The Leonardo Grants are designed to support individual projects by researchers and creators who stand out for their particularly innovative scientific or cultural activity. The program takes Leonardo da Vinci as its inspiration, promoting the exploration of new knowledge, interdisciplinarity, and the ability to open new avenues of research.
Researcher Ana González Suárez, affiliated with the Gandia Campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), has been awarded one of the 2026 Leonardo Grants for Scientific Research and Cultural Creation granted by the BBVA Foundation, one of the most competitive and prestigious calls for applications aimed at researchers in the mid-stages of their careers. This year, 59 grants have been awarded in different scientific, technological, and cultural areas, recognizing outstanding careers and innovative initiatives with the potential to generate a significant impact on society.
The awarding of this grant represents further recognition of Ana González Suárez’s career. From the Gandia Campus, she carries out extensive scientific work in the field of biomedical engineering, where she leads a research line focused on the development of electroporation-based technologies for the treatment of cancer and cardiac arrhythmias. Her research combines computational modeling, experimental validation, and clinical collaboration to design new medical technologies with the potential for transfer to clinical practice.
Throughout her career, she has established herself as an international authority in the study of cardiac ablation techniques, used to treat different types of arrhythmias. Her work combines engineering, numerical simulation, experimentation, and translational medicine, contributing to a better understanding of the physical mechanisms involved during these procedures and to optimizing their efficacy and safety for patients. Her research has addressed key aspects related to radiofrequency ablation and, more recently, to emerging technologies such as pulsed electric field ablation, one of the most promising areas of modern electrophysiology.
Her scientific output reflects a particularly outstanding career. She has participated in 27 competitive research projects, has dozens of international scientific publications, and maintains an intense activity of knowledge transfer and collaboration with leading research centers. The researcher has also accumulated nearly a thousand scientific citations and a growing impact in the field of biomedical engineering and computational simulation applied to health.
Among the most relevant milestones of her career is her inclusion in the Ramón y Cajal program, one of the main avenues for attracting and consolidating research talent in Spain. Before returning to the UPV, she carried out her research at prestigious international institutions such as the University of Galway (Ireland), as well as at leading Spanish research centers and universities. She also undertook research stays in the United States, strengthening an international network of collaborations that is now reflected in her projects and scientific publications.
The awarding of a Leonardo Grant recognizes not only the excellence achieved to date, but also Ana González’s potential for scientific leadership in the coming years. These grants aim precisely to promote research capable of opening new frontiers of knowledge through innovative and high-impact approaches. Thanks to this grant, she will develop MetaPulse, a project whose objective is to create a new electroporation-based technology for the treatment of multiple liver metastases, with the potential to be translated into clinical practice and expand the therapeutic options available to patients whose treatment alternatives are currently very limited.
For the Gandia Campus, this recognition also represents further proof of the quality of research carried out in its laboratories and research groups. Ana González’s success reinforces the campus’s position as a leading environment for technological research applied to health, capable of attracting talent, generating knowledge, and contributing to the advancement of solutions that improve people’s quality of life.
Congratulations to Ana González Suárez on this important recognition, which will contribute to continuing to promote research excellence from the Gandia Campus to the international scientific community.