EIT Health, a European strategic bet

In 2008, the European Union founded the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent body aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in Europe as a whole through the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KIC), in various disciplines. Biocat, with the support of the Government of Catalonia and the Government of Spain, has been promoting and coordinating the Catalan candidacy for a healthcare KIC, EIT Health, which was selected in 2014 and is located in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB).  EIT Health comprises more than 140 leading companies, universities and research centers in 14 European countries. Biocat participates in EIT Health training, acceleration and innovation initiatives.

In 2017, Biocat carried out an intense activity to share experiences of its biodesign program, d·HEALTH Barcelona, ​​with other similar programs organized in other countries within the EIT Health framework. Barcelona hosted several international meetings with this objective: for example, in January 2017, Biocat participated in the "Design Thinking Workshop on Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship" held at the PCB to share the experiences of European biodesign programs. In November 2017, Biocat also participated in the "Sharing best practices of biodesign programs" in Barcelona, ​​and in December a workshop was held in the city to discuss aspects of entrepreneurship and competencies in life sciences within the framework of biodesign.

In April, Biocat collaborated in the organization of a workshop on the methodology of biodesign with students from Oxford University, one of the partners involved in the EIT Health Innovation Fellowships project in 2018. Also in April, Biocat presented in Dublin several projects emerging from the biodesign programs it collaborates in as part of EIT Health: d·HEALTH students presented their projects UsMIMA, MyQup and Hydrop, and shared their experiences of the entrepreneurship process.

In addition, in May, Biocat participated as a mentor in Heidelberg (Germany) at the "Life Sciences Meets IT Hackathon", an entrepreneurship event in which challenges were presented in the field of life sciences and multidisciplinary teams of students worked for two and a half days to propose solutions. For their part, the d·HEALTH Barcelona students traveled to Stockholm in November to participate in the EIT Health Innovation Fellowship Alumni Showcase, where the projects of the program promoted by Biocat won half of the total awards.