Through Government Decision no. 368/28.04.2005, the Excellence Scientific Research Program-CEEX for the period 2005-2008 was approved, a program primarily funded from the state budget and centrally coordinated by the National Authority for Scientific Research. Within this program, the specific main objectives of the CEEX program for health were outlined:

1. Processes and biotechnologies for health.
2. Transferring research results to ensure human health.
3. Optimizing health service provision for European citizens.
4. Information technologies in response to societal challenges.
5. Nanosciences and nanotechnologies, materials, and new production processes aiming at the development of a knowledge-based industry in the field.

During the period 2005-2008, the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences held the leadership role of the national CEEX-Health program, under a contract concluded with the National Authority for Scientific Research.

The CEEX Health research program comprised three domains: medicine, pharmacy, and dentistry. Among the main objectives of this program were the development of knowledge in the fields of medical and pharmaceutical sciences. The harmonization of norms, procedures, interventions, techniques in accordance with the requirements of research/standardization bodies, and European quality management at the national medical system level were pursued.

Expected outcomes included:

• Developing new methods of fundamental research in the field of the human genome, as well as clinical genetics research through the introduction of molecular biology technologies.
• Developing new investigation techniques into the mechanisms of various forms of malignant tumors, diagnostic and aggressiveness markers, as well as correlations for improving early cancer diagnosis.
•  Establishing, for the first time in our country, a centralized system of national registries for various types of cancer (gastric, pancreatic, etc.), for the purpose of monitoring, consulting, and exploiting scientific data.
• Standardizing algorithms for pre and post-natal diagnosis of patients with hematological, genetically determined, autoimmune, and psychiatric diseases to improve life expectancy.
• Developing devices using nanotechnology.
• Research in the field of stem cells and the development of tissue bioengineering techniques.

In this program, over 219 units were involved, including 35 universities from the country with various specialists in medicine, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, technical fields, etc., 29 national research institutes from Bucharest, Iasi, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara with various specializations, and 100 public institutions (county emergency hospitals, military hospitals, municipal hospitals, university hospitals, etc.), research centers (in medicine, biology, chemistry, public health, statistics, etc.), NGOs, and commercial research companies.

As a result of the valorization of the research outcomes, 21 national invention patents accepted by OSIM, a number of 1869 scientific articles published in the country, 106 books, scientific papers, and specialized dictionaries were obtained.

The importance of this research program, besides the high-complexity technology that included both fundamental and applied research made available to the consortium participants, lay in the establishment of representative networks at the national level for research utilizing state-of-the-art technologies.

The establishment in Romanian scientific research of networks and consortia of institutions and organizations recognized at the national and international level could guarantee the acceptance of our researchers in European collectives and their inclusion in EU projects.