The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has already managed to generate 30 spin-offs (companies arising from the technological transfer of the research carried out in its facilities), as explained by Rosa Maria Sebastián, vice-rector of Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the university and director of the Research Park. These companies, he says, raised funds for four million euros in 2022 and reached a turnover of five million.
The most recent spin-off, created this same year, was Tectum Garden, specialized in providing services for urban agriculture. Some have already been acquired by large groups, such as Tramontane Therapeutics, founded in 2021 and which develops gene therapies for metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases, which last year was acquired by the US pharmaceutical company Kriya.
L'Autónoma wants to promote technological transfer activity, and next week it will organize the first week of innovation, an initiative it wants to maintain. "We manage public money and we aspire that it has a social return, and that our knowledge is transformed into economic activity". Sebastián explained that the UAB was the university that led last year in the application of European patents, with 60 files, of which 23 have already been authorized as priority.
UAB research has been creating companies for years, although the activity was not institutionalized as it is now. Sebastián highlights that companies such as Scytl, Strands, AB-Biotics and Davantis have emerged from the campus. According to the university's data, most of its companies are technological (38%) and biomedical and biotechnology (24%).
The UAB also wants to promote the Research Park, where there are already 23 companies located that maintain a thousand jobs and invoice 20 million euros. There are multinationals such as Lucta, Suez and AC Marca, "but they are always companies that collaborate with the training we provide at the university".
