Life sciences sector meets at event on entrepreneurship and technology transfer in Europe

Various companies and organizations from the life sciences sector met yesterday, 3 December, at an event on driving entrepreneurship and technology transfer in Europe. The event, organized by Biocat, was held as the regional closing session to the European ETTBio Effective Technology Transfer in Biotechnology project.

The closing event featured three workshops, which were designed with the main contents and conclusions of the Implementation Plan and the Report of Policy Suggestions for the BioRegion of Catalonia in mind. These two documents are the main results of the ETTBio project and feature proposals to improve technology transfer in Catalonia.  

The event was followed by the awards ceremony for the seventh edition of BioEmprenedorXXI, an initiative of Barcelona Activa, Biocat and “la Caixa” that recognizes the business projects in the life sciences sector with the greatest potential for growth.

The event began with an introduction by Thomas Crispeels, professor in the Department of Technology and Innovation at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, on best practices in biotechnology in Flanders and Brussels.

The output and feasibility of technology transfer offices; public, private and mixed models –centralized or non-centralized; innovative funding models; and new trends were the main topics covered in the first workshop of the day, moderated by Pablo Cironi, head of the Technology Transfer Office at the Center for Genomic Regulation.

The second workshop, moderated by CEO of Spherium Biomed Luís Ruiz, dealt with new collaboration models for innovation between the public and private sectors, emphasizing the need for participation of large companies in public research and to foster venture capital investment in the BioRegion of Catalonia.

The final workshop focused on training challenges in the life sciences and how to promote closer links between academic learning and business schools. Thomas Crispeels moderated this workshop, also speaking about industrial PhD programs and two examples of successful technology transfer: BioEmprenedorXXI and d·HEALTH Barcelona, Biocat’s postgraduate program to accelerate innovation in medical technology for healthcare.

Gabriel Capellà, head of the Government of Catalonia Health Research and Innovation Program, brought the day to a close with his speech emphasizing the Catalan government’s commitment to research and innovation and highlighting the importance of technology transfer and the need to overcome a period in which management structures –at universities, research centers, hospitals, etc.- have often been too small and lacked the necessary resources and critical mass.

Capellà encouraged participants to improve coordination among bodies and to even consider mergers. He recognized that the different governmental departments must improve coordination in this area and recommended that workshop participants “be brave, be proactive, promote new structures because this is what the future of the sector needs.” 

The conference's closing ETTBio project took place on 24 October in Brussels, in the following link you can see the Closting Conference Report of the day.