Biocat has started working, in conjunction with partners all over Europe, on the European BRIGHT and INNAXE projects to maximize the impact of innovation generated in the BioRegion and align the organization’s strategy with current European and international trends in the life sciences and healthcare sector. The knowledge obtained through these new programs will help continue positioning the BioRegion as one of the main health innovation hubs in Europe.

The BioRegion of Catalonia is a benchmark innovative European ecosystem. Catalonia is undergoing a transformation, with a social and political commitment to health in the face of the healthcare and climate crises. A sector that is consolidating its place as a driver of economic growth, a noteworthy technology environment and a growing number of digital health companies destined to transform health and healthcare. 

In this context of effervescent change, Biocat is in charge of coordinating the two projects that have received European funding through the COSME (BRIGHT) and European Innovation Ecosystems (INNAXE) programs under Horizon Europe, which we will explain below.
 

BRIGHT: digital transformation and reinforcing digital health  

The BRIGHT project (from Beyond tRansformative dIGitalisation of HealTh clusters) brings together four European clusters: STUNS, Sweden; Connected Health Cluster, Estonia; Eurasanté, France; and Biocat, Catalonia. The members of the consortium aim to accompany the stakeholders in their respective ecosystems on their digital transformation and bolster the digital health subsector. So, in the first phase, Biocat and the rest of the partners are consulting with companies and support bodies to determine the sector’s digital maturity and be able to define better instruments for the sector. 

INNAXE: measuring Biocat’s impact on the ecosystem

The other project is INNAXE (Inclusive & aligned iNNovation Agendas Across Europe), which brings together the clusters Medicen, France; BioRN, Germany; Health and Life Sciences Cluster, Bulgaria; Danish Life Science Cluster, Denmark; the Council of European BioRegions; and Biocat, Catalonia.

The challenge that has led Biocat to promote this new project is the need to measure the impact its activities have on the ecosystem, with a view to providing better service for stakeholders in tackling their needs. Aligning innovation agendas to make them more inclusive and give them a greater social impact requires co-creating a long-term plan, with academia, industry, administration and society (the stakeholders in the quadruple helix), that integrates all their visions and can be transferred around Europe.