The UB grants €150,000 to 5 research projects as part of the F21 call
On 24 February, an online meeting was held between the people who had been awarded grants from the Valorisation Fund (Fval) from the 2020 Fund for the Promotion of Innovation (F21) call. Within the framework of these grants, the University of Barcelona awarded €25,000 to each selected project through its knowledge transfer office, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, which will be used to enhance projects with a strong potential for transfer and with an impact on our society. The FVal grants will help to further develop technologies being worked on at the UB in order to bring them in line with the demands of the market, and allow them to be transferred by licensing for an existing company or by creating a spin-off.
The winning projects of the fifth edition are on the following topics: developing an innovative therapeutic strategy for treating psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, by Dr Concepció Soler; a more efficient laser projection system to get high-quality images, by Dr Estela Martín Badosa; a new electrochemical system for decontaminating and disinfecting water, by Dr Ignacio Sirés Sadornil; the development of soil bacteria for growing plants, by Dr Rubén Alcázar Hernández; and the development of first-line dual treatments for neuropathic pain, by Dr Santiago Vázquez Cruz and Dr Francisco Alférez.
The FVal grants offer up to €25,000 for each project and are aimed at researchers from the University of Barcelona who are heading up transfer projects in which the UB owns or co-owns both the prior knowledge and technology and the results for which the grant is requested. A total of 16 research projects from the University of Barcelona applied for the call this year: five from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Science: three from the Faculty of Physics; three from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; two from the Faculty of Chemistry; two from the Faculty of Biology; and one from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
This is the fifth edition of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation programme, which has led to the creation of six spin-offs between 2016 and 2020 (AIGecko Technologies, Bluephage, ColorSensing, Mind & Identity, Neurekalab and Virtual Bodyworks) and has created thirty jobs. The investment that the UB funnels into these projects has increased seven-fold over the last four years thanks to the financing received from the projects after receiving the grant.
These grants are funded by the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Government of Catalonia, and are co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
