The FBG awards €106,000 to five UB research projects within the framework of the F2I programme
The FBG has awarded the four grants of the Valorisation Fund (FVal) programme and one of the grants of the Mentor in Residence (MiR) programme of the fourth call for proposals of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation (F2I). Within this framework, €25,000 have been awarded to each of the projects selected in the FVal call. These grants may be used to bring new technologies closer to market requirements, to allow their transfer through a license to an existing company, or to create a new spin-off. One of the €6,000 MiR grants (the call is still open) has also been awarded and will be used to hire a mentor specialized in the management of entrepreneurial projects who will work in different areas, such as defining project strategy, devising a development plan, and organizing activities aimed at seeking funding.
This is the fourth edition of the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation funding scheme, which from 2016 to 2018 has fostered the creation of four spin-offs —Bluephage, ColorSensing, Virtual bodywork, and Mind & Identity— and created nineteen jobs. The investment made by the UB in these projects has multiplied eightfold over these two years thanks to the funding obtained by the projects after receiving the grant.
The projects selected in this fourth edition of the FVal call for proposals were the following: “Autonomous monitoring of water quality and its communication,” led by Dr. Jordi Colomer, from the Faculty of Physics; “Secure communications using optomechanical crystals in the chaotic regime,” led by Dr. Daniel Navarro, from the Faculty of Physics; “A novel approach to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of CAR-T cells,” led by Dr. Carles Galdeano, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences; and “New HRI activators for the treatment of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis,” led by Dr. Manuel Vázquez-Carrera, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences. In addition, “Explore Your Meanings (EYME) – A digital tool for the study of personality” was the project selected to receive an MiR grant.
The grants from the Fund for the Promotion of Innovation are aimed at researchers from the University of Barcelona who lead knowledge transfer projects in which the UB owns or co-owns both the know-how and the pre-existing technology, as well as the results. A total of nineteen research proposals were submitted to this year’s FVal call: three from the Faculty of Physics, eight from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, two from the Faculty of Biology, three from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, two from the Faculty of Psychology, and one from the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science.
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).