How to bridge the gap between science and market

Francesc Fajula, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona

The digital ecosystem in Barcelona is a fertile ground for innovation, entrepreneurship, and the creation of spin-offs. We have 140 international technology hubs, over 122,000 digital professionals, significant investment attraction capabilities, and a robust academic and research structure with top-tier scientific production in Deep Tech. However, the major challenge we face today in our region—and across Europe—is improving our ability to transfer all these ideas and talent from the lab to the market, from research articles to business applications. One of the major differences between Europe and the United States or China is our ability to transfer this scientific knowledge from research centres and universities to the market. This issue has also severely impacted Europe due to the increased productivity gap we’ve experienced over the last decade compared to the United States.

Organizations like Mobile World Capital Barcelona play a crucial role in driving this essential technology transfer, as we act as a bridge between science and the market. In a simplified manner, the formula involves connecting people and knowledge. We need to bring together scientific talent and entrepreneurship, and the ideas with the investment needed to develop them. We must transform research groups and projects into companies, and their technology into products that reach the market and society. This must be done with a humanistic view of technology: selecting, promoting, and facilitating disruptive innovation that can generate a positive impact on people and the planet. It is almost a craft-like job. It requires deep expertise to achieve what is very challenging: ensuring that the right and complementary profiles find each other and work towards the shared goal of making these technologies have a positive impact on people’s lives.

More than 260 projects in eight years

Since we launched our Tech Transfer program, eight years ago, the team has supported over 260 scientific projects in the journey to bring their innovations to society. This task is driven by The Collider program and strategic collaboration with the European Innovation Council within the Tech2Market program. It involves evaluating the feasibility of projects, complementing scientific teams with entrepreneurs, connecting them with investors and the local and international tech ecosystem, and, ultimately, assisting in their market launch.

Each year, around thirty projects participate in our program, mainly from universities and research centres. This year, we have projects from Catalonia (18) and Valencia (4), as well as from the Balearic Islands (1), Basque Country (3), Cantabria (1), Galicia (1), Asturias (1), Madrid (1) and Castilla y León (1). All of them stem from highly promising research in key societal areas, with innovations ranging from tiny energy generators for sensors and IoT to new technologies for water decontamination or applications to detect stroke risk, among others.

To continue growing, this year we introduced a new way to organize calls, making it more agile and accessible. On one hand, project submission is open year-round, allowing researchers and entrepreneurs to present their proposals at any time without waiting for specific calls to open. On the other hand, the program now runs in two simultaneous cycles, one starting in spring and the other in autumn, whereas previously there was only one annual cycle with the same schedule for all projects.

Purpose-driven spin-offs

As part of our Tech Transfer strategy, MWCapital has also directly supported the creation of 22 spin-offs that have generated over 140 jobs to date. These are companies with high disruptive potential and a “technology for the benefit of people” approach, capable of creating a significant positive impact in the Health, Industry, Energy, and sustainability sectors. What we call Tech4Good in English.

The most recent additions to our portfolio include Y-Plasma, with its revolutionary ‘plasma thruster’ technology that enhances the energy generation capacity of wind farms; and the company Nema Health, from Lleida, which aims to open a new field in personalized immunotherapies for melanoma cancer.

The great challenge of the coming years

The technological transfer is the lever where we must put the most effort in the coming years to continue positioning Barcelona and Europe as benchmarks in Deep Tech, and Mobile World Capital is one of the major assets they have to achieve this. It is a complex challenge, where we need to overcome barriers such as the European tendency to compartmentalize scientific knowledge within the academic environment, or reluctance to public-private collaboration.

Organizations like ours are, and must increasingly be, the bridge that helps to close the gap between science and the market.