Innomed Awards drive biomedical innovation
The Can Ruti Campus and its surroundings, a multidisciplinary space where various leading biomedical institutions generating national and international scientific research are clustered, was the venue for the Innomed Awards ceremony, a meeting point for health innovation. This event not only recognised significant advances in biomedicine on the campus but also reaffirmed the commitment to collaboration between major healthcare and research centres.
The Innomed programme, which began earlier this year with the support of ITEMAS, the platform of the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) for supporting R&D&I in Biomedicine and Health Sciences, is already making a significant impact on collaboration among various innovation units. Participating institutions include those associated with the Can Ruti biomedical campus: the Consorci Sanitari del Maresme (CSdM), the Hospital Germans Trias (HUGTiP), the Institut Català d'Oncologia (ICO), the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC), IrsiCaixa, the Institut Guttmann, and the Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP).
The event, which took place on Thursday, 13 June, began with a formal welcome from Dr. Evarist Feliu, President of the IJC Delegated Commission, and Jordi Barretina, Director of IGTP, who highlighted the energy and collaborative spirit of those involved. They were joined by Lluís Blanch, coordinator of the ITEMAS - ISCIII platform, and Raül Zurita, head of innovation at IGTP, who explained the Innomed programme to more than a hundred attendees. Following this, the session "Innovation in Action: Success Stories of Three Biomedical Spin-offs" brought together prominent leaders: Oriol Iborra (Nimble Diagnostics), Alicia Martínez Piñeiro (Time is Brain), and Alberto Martin (AIMS Medical), who shared their experiences and successes, inspiring the entire innovative community present.
In turn, the 15 new talents selected through the programme's incubator had the opportunity to present their projects in the first edition of the 'project pitch'. The highlight of the day was the awards ceremony, which recognised the effort and excellence of the best projects. Each of the winners received a service provided by each of the sponsors valued at 5,000 euros.
The awardees were:
- Market study and business model awards - Sponsors: BHV Partners, Genesis Biomed, and Inveniam Group
- SNIPer - Ana Piqueras Hinojo - Inveniam Group (HUGTiP)
- Design and Development of New Cell Therapies for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus - Laura Belver - BHV Partners (IJC)
- Guttmann Cognitest - Alba Roca - Genesis Biomed (Institut Guttmann)
- Clinical regulatory study award - Sponsor: Ingecal
- Thyromet - Mireia Jordà (IGTP)
- Patentability study award - Sponsor: ZBM Patents & Trademarks
- Towards a highly immunogenic vaccine platform for pancreatic cancer - Carmen Aguilar (IrsiCaixa)
Raül Zurita, head of the Innovation Unit at IGTP, shared his vision during the event: "This day not only celebrates achievements in biomedical innovation but also establishes a clear path for its future at the Can Ruti Campus and its surroundings. We have a rich and potent ecosystem that has been driving innovation for some time. This programme has demonstrated that it offers the necessary tools to continue advancing and achieving good results."
The impact of this programme and its associated events promises to continue expanding, thus consolidating a reference point for health innovation at the national level and attracting both public and private investments.
Innomed: connected for health innovation
The Innomed programme was born with the objective of transforming health innovation. This initiative has been structured around three main axes: promoting a culture of innovation, project incubation, and public-private collaboration. The projects selected by the participating institutions have been developed through the programme, which has offered six months of training and workshops to valorise and implement innovative projects, covering key elements of an innovative project, addressing topics such as the market and business model, regulation of medical devices and drugs, and the technology transfer process essential to laying the foundations for the campus's future innovation projects.