Entrepreneurship and Scientific Quality in the Third Edition of Science + Partners
The third edition of the Science + Partners meeting, organized by the Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, took place on 30 May and 1 June 2017 and brought together business specialists and researchers who carry out projects in the field of healthcare and medical digital devices. For thirty minutes, the researchers presented their innovations and answered the questions and observations of the investors.
This edition focused on five projects of the University of Barcelona: ‘Impetux’, presented by Dr. Elisabet Romeu; ‘Portable Device for Molecular Diagnosis’, presented by Dr. Oscar Alonso; ‘LogMeal: Computer Vision Tools to Improve Healthy Eating Habits’, presented by Dr. Petia Ivanova; ‘Digital Tools for Evaluation, Learning and Re-education of Cognitive Functions in Childhood’, presented by Dr. Sergi Grau; and ‘Virtual Bodywork’, presented by Dr. Albert Zamora. “This has been a valuable opportunity for us to learn about different views on our project. In some cases, they have surprised us by highlighting important features that we had not identified, and in some others they have confirmed the potential of our project, but from perspectives quite removed from our own,” says Elisabet Romeu, of Impetux.
The partners invited to the conference formed a very diverse committee of experts within the sector. On 30 May, the invited experts were Juan Álvarez de Lara, founder and CEO of Seed & Click; Àlex Casta, director of investments of Caixa Capital Risc; Lourdes García, director of intellectual property at CRB Inverbio; Jose Luis Gómez, investment analyst at Bullnet Capital; Pere Medina, member of SECOT; Sara Secall, head investment officer at Inveready Biotech II; Alexis Piquer, legal and strategic director of Smartech Ventures and founder and legal and strategic director of Cirial 180º; and Georgina Sorrosal, an investment analyst at Healthequity. On the other hand, the expert committee on 1 June was formed by Jordi Arias, director of the Tech Transfer programme at mVenturesBCN; Albert Cot, partner of Inveniam Group; Oriol Cordón, co-founder and head investment officer at Crowdcube Spain; Fermín Goytisolo, partner of Uninvest; Josep Lluís i Falcó, founder of Genesis Biomed; and Sylvain Sachot, an associate investor at Ysios Capital.
The Science + Partners meeting has already resulted in a success story, for one of the partners invested in one of the projects presented during the second edition of this event, held in October and centred on electronics, Big Data and ICTs. “Science + Partners is improving every year both in quality and delivery. I hope that the contributions made by the panel will be useful to researchers,” says Sara Secall, of Inveready.
The FBG is already working on the organization of an upcoming meeting to consolidate an activity that is receiving very good reviews from both partners and scientists. As Sylvain Sachot of Ysios Capital comments, “these kind of events are important to consolidate an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs can benefit from the experience of local actors.”