On Thursday 13 March, the innovation units and researchers from Consorci Sanitari del Maresme, Germans Trias i Pujol University Hospital, Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, IrsiCaixa, Institut Guttmann, Institut Català d'Oncologia and Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) gathered at IGTP to launch the second edition of the GrowInn project incubator as part of the Innomed programme. The meeting provided an opportunity to share experiences from the first edition and define the new challenges and objectives for this year.

From idea to reality

The Innomed programme was launched in early 2024 as a joint initiative of healthcare and research centres from the Can Ruti Campus and its surrounding area, with the aim of promoting knowledge transfer and fostering innovation in healthcare. The programme is structured around three key pillars:

• Fostering an innovation-driven culture, encouraging a mindset oriented towards innovation within research institutes and hospitals.

• Project incubation, providing support to ideas with potential to develop them into applicable solutions.

• Public-private collaboration, facilitating connections between research, businesses, and investors.

The programme is supported by companies from various sectors (consulting, pharmaceutical industry, technology, venture capital, etc.) and is funded by ITEMAS, Instituto de Salud Carlos III's platform dedicated to driving the transfer of high-impact projects.

The first edition of Innomed concluded in June 2024 with the programme's Demo Day, the Innomed Awards, a final event where incubated projects were showcased and the most outstanding proposals were awarded. This experience demonstrated that cooperation and shared knowledge are key to turning ideas into solutions with real impact.

The road to the 2025 Innomed Awards

Following last year's structure, participants in this edition will attend a series of training sessions and workshops starting on 27 March, aimed at identifying and applying valorisation strategies for their projects. The planned sessions include:

• Intellectual and industrial property

• Introduction to regulatory requirements for medical devices

• Introduction to regulatory requirements for medicines and biologics

• Market analysis and business model

• The technology transfer and funding process

• Presentation of the valorisation plan

• Tools for creating an effective pitch

This journey will once again culminate in the second edition of the Innomed Awards, where incubated projects will present their pitches before an expert jury. The best projects will receive support to access specialised advisory services, helping them move forward in the development and implementation of their proposals.

Raül Zurita, head of the Innovation and Business Development Unit at IGTP, highlights the enthusiasm surrounding this new edition: "The success of the first edition demonstrated the potential of collaborative innovation. We now take on this new challenge with the goal of consolidating this foundation and helping new projects grow and generate real impact".

With this second edition of GrowInn, the innovation ecosystem of the Can Ruti Campus takes another step forward in its commitment to transforming knowledge into solutions that can make a difference in healthcare and society.