The UAB brought together over 700 professionals, including researchers, businesspeople and entrepreneurs in this second edition of the UAB Innovation Week, which took place from 14 to 18 October. The variety of activities held aimed to connect the University's surrounding ecosystem and foster the transfer of knowledge and technologies to society.
The event once again demonstrated the University's commitment to innovation and its determination to collaborate with the business and social fabric. For five days, more than 300 researchers, 300 businesspeople and 100 entrepreneurs and government workers gathered on campus to explore collaborations and learn about the various innovation projects on campus.
Throughout the week, different activities, talks and workshops were held, open to the entire campus community and to companies and organisations in the region, and more than 300 meetings were held between different institutional, business and academic agents with the aim of establishing synergies and exploring possible collaboration.
En aquest sentit, cal destacar algunes xifres del potencial de la Universitat en matèria de recerca, innovació i transferència: el 2023 estaven actius 626 convenis de recerca i prestació de serveis, que van suposar un ingrés de 20 M€. A més, l'any passat s'hi van desenvolupar 189 projectes publicoprivats, finançats a través de convocatòries competitives europees (del programa Horizon Europe), estatals (com les convocatòries "Proyectos de colaboración público-privada", "Retos" o "Pruebas de concepto") i autonòmiques (del Programa Indústria del Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya).
In this regard, it is worth highlighting figures of the University's potential in terms of research, innovation and transfer: in 2023, 626 research and service agreements were active, which represented an income of 20 million euros. In addition, last year 189 public-private projects were developed, financed through European competitive calls (Horizon Europe programme), state-wide calls (such as the "Public-private collaboration projects", "Challenges" or "Proofs of concept") and national calls (Industry of Knowledge Programme of the Government of Catalonia).
Innovation "Matchmaking"
The Innovation Fair, held on Tuesday at the Hotel Exe Campus, was one of the highlights of the week and brought together 300 people. The programme of the day, organised by the UAB Research Park, featured an exhibition of technologies and knowledge from 80 research groups and 20 companies emerging from the UAB.
Javier Lafuente, rector of the UAB, was in charge of inaugurating the day, accompanied by Jaume Baró, secretary of Enterprise and Competitiveness of the Government of Catalonia and Carlos Cordón, mayor of Cerdanyola del Vallès. In his opening speech, Javier Lafuente pointed out that "the UAB is a leader in research, as the world rankings indicate, and our challenge is that our knowledge and technologies reach society in the form of applications that can help improve people's lives. We believe that public-private collaboration is essential to make the University a driving force for social change".
Cultural events and new technologies
Innovation Week was also a place for reflections and debates. On Wednesday the Faculty of Arts & Humanities held a day dedicated to music, cultural events and new technologies, which discussed the possibilities of implementing new technologies within the cultural sector.
The day included the presentation of the ENIA UAB-Cruïlla Chair of Artificial Intelligence in Music and the Arts, a public-private initiative that will support research in and experimentation of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions with a strong will to transfer knowledge to the ecosystem of cultural industries. At the presentation ceremony, Jordi Herreruela, director of the Cruïlla Festival and president of the Barcelona Music Lab, pointed out that "the music industry is much more than music; it includes, for example, all the logistics of a major music event, which allows testing technological advances, linking industry, university, technology and the arts".
During that same day, different projects applying artificial intelligence to the cultural industries were also shown, a round table on sustainability and new technologies in this sector was held, and two live concerts with musical projects created with AI took place.
Building paths of social impact
The final event of Innovation Week was the meeting on science and entrepreneurship in feminine, this year under the theme "Building paths of social impact", which explored the possible effects or benefits of research, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship for society and the environment, with the aim of generating a positive and tangible change. The event was attended by leading researchers, entrepreneurs and professionals, who shared their knowledge, research and practical experiences.
UAB Vice-Rector for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship and Director of the UAB Research Park, Rosa Maria Sebastián, officially closed the Innovation Week at the end of the day. Vice-Rector Sebastián highlighted the great approval of the event and stressed "the importance of making visible the research and innovation that is done at the University and the multidisciplinarity that characterises us, which allows us to respond to social challenges from different disciplines".
Other activities organised in the framework of Innovation Week were the awards ceremony of the Eines 2024 Awards for the best projects of social transformation, organised by the Chair in Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation, affiliated to the Centre for Studies and Research in Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation (CREIS) of the UAB; a business breakfast organised by the Cerdanyola City Council and Cerdanyola Empresarial, which discussed the collaboration of companies with research and innovation agents; the Entrepreneur's Corner with the experience of the University spin-off company AllRead, or an open day at the Scientific Information Port, a centre located on campus specialising in the development of advanced tools and methods for the analysis of scientific data.
