Barcelona City Council and the Science Park of the University of Barcelona (UB) They inaugurated this Wednesday the BCN Health Booster, an accelerator of emerging companies in the field of health, which in its first edition will host 11 innovative projects with high social impact. The mayor, Ada Colau, the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, and the rector of the UB, Joan Guàrdia, have kicked off an initiative that has an investment of more than one million euros.
BCN Health Booster was born in the context of the Barcelona Science Plan, promoted by the town hall, as an example of collaboration between public centers, companies, universities and administrations to promote innovation in health and the return to society of investment in research.
The accelerator, located in the same Barcelona Science Park, has facilities of 527 square meters of surface, where the 11 selected companies will have, for three years, subsidized access to laboratories for exclusive or shared use, as well as scientific equipment and infrastructures state-of-the-art within the park’s ecosystem to actively contribute to the growth of your business.
Discovery of therapeutic products
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In addition, together with Biocat, they will benefit from a business support program adapted to the needs or challenges faced by each company during these three years, which will include personalized mentoring and consulting, training, and advice on access to finance. Of the 11 companies selected, out of a total of 19 applications, seven are in the discovery phase of therapeutic products -for different types of cancers, chronic diseases or fibrotic diseases-, three are working on the development of diagnostic tools and one, on the design of biomaterials for the health sector.
“BCN Health Booster se centers en boost science and research as the engine of a new economic model for this city that is more sustainable and that generates greater well-being for the citizens “, Colau stressed. For its part, Collboni remarked that the town hall, despite not having direct competences in the matter, has a firm commitment to promoting science in the Catalan capital, with the aim of turning it into a European benchmark in research. For the Rector of the UB, the accelerator “is a new piece of the necessary framework between research, transfer and impact essential for the development of the city and the country as knowledge societies. “” After the pandemic, it is urgent to take on the challenge of putting at the service of society the important advances in health that we can offer from this initiative “, has Guàrdia underlined.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com