The Collider launches the first edition of OnCampus, a technology entrepreneurship programme for scientists

• Using US-developed Lean Launchpad methodology, the programme will reveal the potential of research to industry so it can boost its competitiveness and will help researchers to optimize their projects and adapt them to market requirements
• OnCampus is starting with 30 projects from all over Catalonia and, specifically, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Lleida, Rovira i Virgili University and the University of Girona

27 October, 2020

Barcelona, 27 October 2020.- The Collider, the innovation programme of Mobile World Capital Barcelona (MWCapital), has launched the first edition of OnCampus, an entrepreneurship programme for masters and doctorate students and for researchers. This seven-week programme will be hosted in parallel in each of the territories of Catalonia represented by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Lleida, Rovira i Virgili University and the University of Girona. The initiative has arisen from collaboration between MWCapital and the Secretariat for Business and Competitiveness of the Regional Government of Catalonia for the 2020-2023 period. To showcase the potential of research for improving the competitiveness of industry, OnCampus also involves the University Entrepreneurship Network and CERCA, which represents Catalonia’s major research centres and universities.

The training is designed to validate the market applicability of laboratory-tested technology projects, alongside experts from industry, while using Lean Launchpad methodology. This methodology has consolidated the United States as the benchmark for market-oriented research as it has transformed relations among universities and companies with a view to encouraging and generating a new science-based industrial fabric.

The programme’s main objectives are to identify potential initial-phase projects that may impact industries of different territories and to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit in the scientific ecosystem. On a parallel basis, OnCampus also boosts business competitiveness by creating new dynamics in industry and research and helping to optimize research projects and to adapt them to market requirements.

30 projects, 8 from each province, will take part in this first edition of OnCampus. For seven weeks, the 110 participants will work simultaneously and online to evaluate the viability of marketing their projects via entrepreneurship. Using a Business Model Canvas type system, participants will evolve their idea by validating the hypotheses with industry.

Participating projects deal with a variety of areas ranging from health initiatives and applications for agriculture to energy and essential services such as urban waste management.

The programme, which covers a broad range of activities and encourages contact with industry, networking with business experts, mentoring and sharing feedback among participants, will end on 11 December with presentations of the projects in front of a panel of experts that will determine the idea’s potential in industry.