On 16 May, Jordi Hereu, Mayor of Barcelona, attended the ceremony of the signature of the agreements with the first five entities collaborating in the new Almogàvers Business Factory business incubator, located in the 22@Barcelona district and promoted by Barcelona Activa.

The agreement was signed by Jordi William Carnes, deputy mayor and chairman of Barcelona Activa; Josep Joan Moreso, rector of Pompeu Fabra University; Agustín Elbaile, vice-chairman of McCann; Ferran Amago, dean of the Guild of Technical Engineers and Telecommunications Experts of Catalonia (COETTC);  Ronan Bardet, manager of E-commerce Global Incubator, and Carles Ferrer, general partner of Nauta.

The new UPF Business Shuttle incubation spaces will be managed by UPF’s Innovation and Research Parks Unit and will be housed on the second floor of the building of the new Almogàvers Business Factory incubator (C/ Almogàvers 165).

It will cover an area of 290 m2 and will start up on 1 June. Initially two UPF spin-offs will set up there: qGenomics (Quantitative Genomic Medicine Laboratories, S.L) and Chemotargets S.L.

Two spin-offs from the UPF group

qGenomics (Quantitative Genomic Medicine Laboratories) is a knowledge transfer company devoted to the development and application of products and services derived from research into genomics and the health sector. As a spin-off company of public bodies, it aims to close the ideal circle of R&D and develop products that contribute to improving people’s quality of life.

The team of founder partners of qGenomics consists of Luis Pérez-Jurado, paediatrician, geneticist and doctor in medicine and currently tenured lecturer of genetics at UPF, Xavier Estivill, haematologist and doctor in medicine, currently coordinator of the Genes and Disease programme of the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and adjunct lecturer of genetics at UPF, and Lluís Armengol, doctor in biochemistry and post-doctoral researcher at the CRG.

Chemotargets is a spin-off created in 2006 by Jordi Mestres, researcher at the Municipal Institute of Medical Research at the Hospital del Mar Research Institute, a centre attached to UPF, with the aim of leading the field of computational pharmacology, applying the technology developed in its research to the computer design of new drugs, via collaborations with other companies in the chemical, pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors.

Almogàvers Business Factory is a new centre for new companies set up by Barcelona City Council in collaboration with the universities, research centres, professional associations and risk capital funds in support of innovation and entrepreneurship. This infrastructure will contribute to the growth of highly innovative companies and to generating quality employment, both key strategies for economic recovery.