For more than 20 years, IRTA has collaborated with the Plant&Food Research Institute (PFR) of New Zealand. Since 2002, it has co-owned the Hot Climate Partnership (HCP), a genetic improvement program to obtain new varieties of apple and pear adapted to warm climates such as that of Catalonia.



In 2019, the two institutions, together with Fruitfutur - association of the main apple and pear producers in Catalonia- also owner of the HCP, signed an exclusive license with the company Venturefruit Global Ltd (of the T&G Global group) from New Zealand, as a strategic partner for the commercialization of new varieties at a global level.



In 2023, the first apple variety of the program, known as TUTTI®, was launched on the market and it is expected that in the coming years there will be new introductions to the market of both new apple and pear varieties.



The reason for the trip to New Zealand is to visit these two strategic partners. Visit the different centers of Plant and Food Research and meet with the members of the management in order to follow up on the operation of the HCP, but also to promote new scientific collaborations and thus strengthen international alliances. Second, visit our HCP commercial partner to strategize new commercial launches of other varieties in the breeding program.

BioVaria is a conference exclusively aimed at KTTs to offer their technology portfolio to an audience exclusively focused on technology explorers, in-licensing profiles and investors, with a focus on finding commercially attractive licensing opportunities and promising start-ups from across Europe within the life sciences sector. It is organised by Ascenion, an independent knowledge and technology transfer company that supports over 30 European partners focused on the life sciences, and will take place on 29 and 30 October at the Sofitel Munich Bayerpost in Munich (Germany). This conference is recommended by the European association of reference for knowledge transfer ASTP, an association where we have become members since IR Sant Pau as part of our objectives for this 2024.



BioVaria is an event of no more than 300 attendees that has been organized for 16 years and has established loyal international contacts from major pharmaceutical companies such as AbbVie, Bayer and CSL Behring, several investor firms, start-ups and KTTs from universities and research institutes at a European level. Due to the rather small proportion, it allows to offer exhibition and presentation spaces focused on promoting the visualization of technologies in an efficient and close way.

Innovation Exchange Amsterdam (IXA) is a transversal innovation and transfer unit, which works for different entities related to the R&D&I activity of the city of Amsterdam. On the one hand, there is the IXA-AUMC Office, which is the entity responsible for managing innovation matters in the medical field. AUMC are the acronyms referring to the merger of two academic hospitals that joined forces in June 2018: AMC and VUmc. On the other hand, there is the more academic sector formed by three universities: IXA-UvA, IXA-VU (Vrije University) and IXA-HvA (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences). All offices work under the same brand (IXA) and there is the necessary inter-coordination for strategic and operational alignment, which allows for a fruitful operating system.

The visit aims to explore the mechanisms used by higher institutions (universities and research centers) in Argentina to transfer the knowledge generated by their researchers to society as a whole. Specifically, the aim is to explore intellectual property policies, spin-offs and other mechanisms to encourage knowledge transfer. The applicant will take advantage of a research stay at CIEFAP (Esquel, Argentina) (between 2-3 weeks) to extend the visit to relevant institutions in Buenos Aires and Uruguay, among which the deanship of the Faculty of Agronomy in Buenos Aires (Prof. Flavio Gutiérrez, vice-dean) and the directors of the IFEVA (Dr. Carlos di Bella) and INBA (Dr. Gerardo Rubio) centers have been confirmed so far, and in Uruguay the University of the Republic (Prof. Ariel Castro). 

IJC is immersed in a strategic collaboration with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in order to generate a stable alliance around liquid cancer research. In this sense, we already have several collaboration contracts signed with the main biohealth research entities in the UAE.



We are currently in the process of setting up a new start-up dedicated exclusively to this area and this trip is necessary to give it the definitive boost to consolidate the value proposition and the alliances described previously.



The trip will take place within the framework of a specific congress, the “Precision Med Exhibition & Summit” (https://precisionmedexpo.com/) but will be accompanied by a complete agenda of meetings that include everything from the UAE Ministry of Health to the country's leading biomedical research centers and hospitals. A meeting with local representatives of ACCIÓ and the Spanish Embassy in the Emirates is also planned.



The context of the trip therefore falls especially in an area of ​​innovation and transfer at an international level, with the promotion of the creation of a new company and the establishment of a knowledge transfer framework in the form of advice and co-creation of new personalized medicine platforms that will clearly benefit Catalan biomedical research by providing it with disruptive technologies, access to new patients and new high-value clinical data, and offering international visibility and reputation of high strategic value.

The objective of this mobility is to expand the use and impact of the network of CIMNE Classrooms in Latin America (https://aulas.cimne.com), transforming it into a resource strategic for the transfer of knowledge and innovation for all centers that are interested, within the CERCA system. Although the classroom network

CIMNE was originally created with a focus on research and education in numerical methods in engineering, the CIMNE now seeks to position it also as

a technology transfer channel, which allows all CERCA centers interested in taking advantage of this infrastructure in key international markets.





BIO-Europe is the main trade fair in the Biotech and Biomedical field with attendees from all over the world, including large companies, start-ups, Venture Capital firms, government agencies, and Technology transfer offices, among others. This is a great opportunity to foster collaborations with the industry through the offer of IBEC’s out-licensing opportunities and capabilities in the bioengineering field.



IBEC Delegates handled almost 70 one-to-one requested meetings (incoming + outgoing) with potential Partners, including biotech, small/medium companies, Contract Research Organizations and government agencies. 20+ meetings were eventually scheduled to take place at the fair.  

The trip is part of a Biocat mission. The trip includes attendance at the World Medical Innovation Forum. It also includes visits to pharmaceutical companies based in Boston, a business accelerator and a research support foundation.



The World Medical Innovation Forum brings together global leaders to address the latest opportunities and challenges in the investment landscape, key technological developments, manufacturing and regulatory barriers. New ideas on the future of patient care will be discussed. Attending the Forum not only allows you to learn first-hand about this need, but also allows you to talk to these doctors and present IBEC proposals that can respond to these needs. In addition, one of the documents that will be presented is the survey promoted by this hospital and in which thousands of doctors have participated, identifying the 10 medical needs worldwide.



This Forum will also feature companies (their CEOs) who will present their approach to generating new solutions to the challenges of achieving global health. This is an opportunity to show them how IBEC's developments or capabilities can be complementary. In addition to attending the Forum, this mission organized by Biocat includes a visit to some pharmaceutical companies based in Boston to whom we will be able to present IBEC, our capabilities and projects.



A visit to a foundation that finances research projects in the form of an incubator is also planned because in addition to funding, they provide laboratory space to develop the project. IBEC is interested in this type of proposal because we can present a project that takes advantage of this initiative to develop the project in a framework of unparalleled opportunities. 

Finally, a visit to an accelerator where companies can develop their projects, starting with a place in a small office and which can host the development of this company until it occupies an entire laboratory, is also planned. IBEC is interested



As part of my role as Industry and Innovation Manager, I attended the Milner Therapeutics Symposium (MTS) 2024, the key, yearly networking event of the Milner Therapeutics Institute (MTI), which is located at the University of Cambridge, UK. It is a collaborative hub, opened in 2015 for advancing therapeutic discovery, by focusing on translating research into new treatments. It does so by bringing together a community of academia, industry, and investors to accelerate the development of new medicines. Over these years, they have built various initiatives aimed at establishing research infrastructure, incubating and accelerating spin-offs, and increasing collaboration between academics and industry, within Cambridge and the local area. Regarding the latter, they have built the Milner Therapeutics Consortium (MTC) which consists of 3 academic centres (Univ. Of Cambridge, Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Babraham Institute) and 10 pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. Within this consortium they have agreements in place to streamline interactions between academic researchers and industry partners facilitating the execution of pre-competitive research collaborations between, and they run regular events to facilitate these interactions. One such event is the MTS and it took place on the 2nd of July 2024, at a conference venue in the wider Univ. Of Cambridge Campus. I attended (i) as a representative of an affiliate member and (ii) to learn from a successful initiative aimed to stimulate public-private partnership, a main focus of my role at the CRG.

Purpose: To get to know the InnoRenew CoE team, its lines of work and facilities first-hand in order to establish collaborations and knowledge transfer between both entities. This visit is particularly relevant in view of the launch of the new facilities of the Forestry Hub of Catalonia.



Characteristics of the chosen venue: InnoRenew CoE is an independent research institute established in 2017 through the InnoRenew project. Its research focuses on renewable materials and sustainable buildings, specifically on innovative approaches to wood and its use, with the aim of transferring scientific knowledge into industrial practice.

As the Business Development and Intellectual Property (IP) Manager at CRG's Technology & Business Development Office (TBDO), I represented CRG in the EU-LIFE Community Meeting in April 2024. EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading European life sciences research institutes, enhances research quality and impact across Europe through policy advocacy, collaboration, and the development of best practices. As a dedicated member institution, CRG actively contributes to and benefits from EU-LIFE's initiatives, and the annual Community Meeting provides essential opportunities for face-to-face collaboration within Working Groups and with strategic leaders. My role in the TT Working Group involves licensing, and spin-off creation. The meeting was held at CeMM in Vienna, -, an esteemed center for molecular medicine -also an EU-Life. The meeting was held at CeMM in Vienna, -, an esteemed center for molecular medicine -also an EU-Life institutions on IP management, licensing, and spin-off creation. The meeting was held at CeMM in Vienna, -, an esteemed center for molecular medicine -also an EU-Life member institution as CRG- from April 24 to April 26, 2024, which included working sessions, the main Community Meeting including designated two afternoons for TT Working group, and a full day EU-LIFE Utopia Conference on AI in biomedicine . As a subtancial presence of TT professionals were present, the conference sparked a fruitful discussion on TT aspects of AI assets developed at public research institutuions.



The visit to the Leuven health innovation ecosystem, which will take place from 26 to 28 November 2024 with the teams of KU Leuven Research & Development (LRD), members of the EUHA platform, has a triple purpose: on the one hand, to acquire knowledge and experiences on new processes for our Department of Innovation and Business Development, to establish strategic alliances with the leading centers that we will visit, reinforcing our connection with reference innovation platforms at a global level, and on the other hand, to acquire new knowledge for the design of the new Innovation Hub of the Vall d'Hebron Research Institute (VHIR). This stay will allow us to get to know reference centers such as the LRD, UZ Leuven, and the CD3 and AstriVax incubators, as well as the Health House, a leading space in technological solutions in health.

 Our objective is to learn from the best international practices and apply this knowledge both in the creation of the new hub and in the optimization of technology transfer in the VHIR. In relation to the Innovation Hub, this visit will allow us to acquire essential knowledge about the management of innovation infrastructures, the dynamization of multidisciplinary teams and the integration of networks, talents and resources. Learning from these models, which have proven to be successful in Leuven, will be key to developing a hub that acts as a driver and catalyst for biomedical innovation. In addition, the visit will allow us to study how they foster the incubation of startups and the scaling of innovative projects, as well as public-private collaborations that favor the transfer of knowledge and solutions to the market.