MICINN increases funding for projects for commercial development of R&D results by 45%
Some 56% are in biotechnology and 22% in nanotechnology and industrial processes. Most of the companies are Catalan.
BY BIOCAT
The Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), through the Genoma España Foundation, funded 18 InnoCash 2010 projects —this call for proposals was first available on the Biocat website last November— for which they earmarked a total of €8 millions, 45% more than in 2009, for commercial development of R&D technology and results.
The InnoCash program, managed by Genoma España, identifies and matures R&D technology and results generated, above all, by public research centers in order to transfer them to the market through innovation projects driven by industrial or financial investors.
The main aims of this program are to mobilize private investment, transfer technology, drive productivity in companies, and generate high-quality employment.
This way, according to the MICINN, the capital mobilized by investors in 2010 to fund these projects nearly doubled the amount granted by the InnoCash program, reaching more than €15 millions. This funding comes from both venture capital firms (21%) and investment partners (55%).
Based on the origin of the technology, Catalonia and Madrid are the communities that generated the most projects (five each). Regarding communities where companies that carry out the technology development are located, Catalonia stands out with seven:
- Health/Bio
- Agrasys (developing a system of hybrids)
- Archivel Farma (developing a new prophylactic and therapeutic tuberculosis vaccine)
- Neurotec Pharma (multiple sclerosis: developing various therapeutic products)
- Palo Biofarma (developing adenosine modulators as therapeutic targets)
- Nano
- Pangaea (lung cancer diagnosis in blood)
- Visiometrics (Scattermeter: developing a new instrument for objective measurement of true vision quality without patient intervention)
- TIC
- Immsund (developing a three-dimensional audio device)
The areas that most stand out are biotechnology (56%) and nanotechnology and industrial processes (22%). And by sector of application, healthcare is the predominant with seven therapy projects and four diagnostics projects.