Biocat and experts from Boston help bring European healthcare research to market with CRAASH Barcelona program

Biocat is bringing the CRAASH Barcelona acceleration program to Europe. This 12-week course will help research teams from Catalonia and other European countries successfully launch innovation to market in the medical devices, diagnostics, e-health and digital health arena.

The program will select and train eight research teams to commercialize their technology within 3 to 5 years. Participants will be guided by expert mentors from CIMIT (Boston), the most experienced healthcare accelerator in the world. Over 15 years, CIMIT has successfully accelerated more than 600 healthtech projects, doubled the commercialization rate and cut time to the next stage by more than half. Teams participating in CRAASH Barcelona will validate their project in some of the best healthcare ecosystems in the US and Europe and pitch to investors and other members of the Boston ecosystem.

CRAASH Barcelona is organized by Biocat in collaboration with CIMIT and is part of the bootcamp program run by EIT Health, the main European healthcare consortium.

The deadline for applications to the CRAASH Barcelona program is March 11 and they must be submitted through the website. CRAASH Barcelona is looking for eight projects with cutting-edge technology (diagnostics, devices or e-/digital health) from research centers, research institutes or universities in the BioRegion of Catalonia or other European ecosystems.As a result of the act of public presentation, the first proposals have already been received.

CRAASH Barcelona is open to research projects in the proof-of-concept or proof-of-feasibility phase. Established companies may also apply if they are looking for an application for their technology and/or searching for/validating a business model. The whole program, including travel, is free for the teams selected. 

Public presentation

Biocat presented CRAASH Barcelona at an event held at the Mobile World Center in Barcelona, with nearly 200 professionals in attendance. The event was led by David Elvira, director of the Catalan Health Service, who highlighted that “programs like CRAASH Barcelona are essential to bring together research and innovation with a network of international stakeholders.” Elvira celebrated the fact that the BioRegion has “great raw materials”, including a “solid research structure, country-level innovation instruments and a strong, wide-reaching ecosystem.” However, we still have to tackle “the challenge of improving innovation and its impact on healthcare services.”

In this regard, Biocat Director of Strategy Jordi Naval explained that “CRAASH Barcelona addresses one of the main challenges facing Biocat and the Catalan healthcare and life sciences ecosystem as a whole: making sure the excellent science being done by research bodies in the BioRegion of Catalonia becomes real solutions for patients.” This is why Naval highlighted that the program is “service” oriented, aiming to bring value to technology transfer agents. 

“Here at CIMIT we are very happy to be working with Biocat to accelerate time to market for top-notch research being done in the BioRegion of Catalonia and other European ecosystems, and we’re sure our experience and contacts in the Boston ecosystem will help bring this top-notch science to patients,” explained John Collins, COO of CIMIT.  "Good science doesn't make necessarily good products and good products doesn't necessarily make good business -added Collins.- Investigators have no training in Innovation and learning by trying in health is very unefficient. CRAASH Barcelona is the way to scale the experience CIMIT have demonstrated in 15 years".

CRAASH Barcelona is part of the bootcamp program run by EIT Health, which was presented by its former CEO, Sylvie Bove.

How CRAASH Barcelona works

CRAASH Barcelona is an intensive 12-week program broken into three phases. The first phase (April to June) will have teams validate whether their technology can cover a real need and find a place on the market. The teams will work with experts from CIMIT in Boston, first in person at an event in Barcelona and later through virtual meetings.

The second phase will allow teams to validate their projects in two other European markets, France and the Netherlands, through visits to the Medicen (Paris) and Yesdelft! (Delft) ecosystems in July and September.

Finally, the CRAASH Barcelona teams will also be able to network and validate their projects in the Boston ecosystem, which is one of the most important in the healthcare sector. All of the teams will pitch their projects in October to the Boston ecosystem, and two of them will be selected to extend their stay in the city with a three-week immersion program. 

Biocat and healthcare acceleration

According to the Biocat Report, roughly 50 new companies are created each year in the BioRegion of Catalonia. Biocat has experience in accelerating healthcare projects and developing talent since 2008. In ten years, Biocat has invested over €11 million, distributed in 300 programs attended by more than 2,300 students. Biocat has successfully accelerated 96 life sciences projects that generated 300 new job positions..

In 2013, in order to increase the impact of these strategic activities, Biocat launched Moebio, its initiative for acceleration and innovation. Moebio is ranked as one of the top accelerators in Europe according to rankings by Digitalhealth.careers, Mobile World Capital, Tech EU and HealthStartup. CRAASH Barcelona is one of the flagship programs of Moebio, along with Design Health Barcelona (d·Health Barcelona).

Interview with John Collins:

Interviw with Jordi Naval, director of Strategy - Biocat:

Event partners:

With the support of*:

* With the support of the Department of Enterprise and Knowledge and the co-financing of the ESF