Fourth Open Innovation Forum kicks off to drive collaboration between companies and research arena
<p>More than 70 participants have signed up for the program, holding over 30 meetings to attempt to resolve the 15 innovation challenges the companies posed.</p>
The first meeting of the fourth Open Innovation Forum, a program that connects challenges proposed by companies with research groups in the BioRegion, was held this month online. In total, 70 participants, companies and problem-solvers, signed up and took part in 30 meetings to attempt to resolve the 15 innovation challenges the companies had posed. The challenges fall under six areas of knowledge: life sciences and healthcare, food, chemistry, energy and resources, industrial systems and mobility.
As this year is still atypical due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Biocat CEO Jordi Naval and ACCIÓ CEO Joan Romero took part in the welcome session virtually. In a video, ACCIÓ Senior Consultant Pep Orellana summarized the calls for grants open now that companies can submit to.
The Open Innovation Forum is organized by Biocat, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, UPF Ventures, UAB Research Park and CIT-UPC, with collaboration from ACCIÓ, the Institute of Material Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Barcelona Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), University of Girona (UdG), Rovira i Virgili University (URV), Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), R+D+I Network Energy for Society (XRE4S), Catalonian Reference Network on Food Technology (XaRTA) and Biotechnology Reference Network (XRB). The collaborators for this edition are: CSIC, IISPV, IRB IREC, UdG, URV, VHIR, CataloniaBio & HealthTech, XRE4S, XIA.
Technology Showcase launch
During the welcome, the CEO of Biocat announced that the Technology Showcase platform is now available. “This project aims to present all the technology in our research ecosystem, organized into large themes so companies can find solutions to their needs,” he highlighted. The Technology Showcase is scheduled for December 1 and 2.