The mission of the Technology and Business Development Office at the CRG is to leverage the institution’s research for the public good and to further the economic growth of the life sciences sector in our region. Our aim is for the scientific results generated at the CRG to develop into novel therapeutic, diagnostic and other types of products that will contribute to our society’s wellbeing.
Irrespective of the stage of development or whether we perform basic or applied science at the CRG, the TBDO is firmly convinced that the most beneficial products and services stem from disruptive scientific achievements. We expect these results to generate a much higher impact in and on society if they receive the right support and are channelled through an appropriate commercialisation strategy.
Consequently, in the course of 2017, TBDO boosted its activity through regular meetings with researchers, holding more than 450 meetings, as well as by guiding CRG innovators into the technology transfer process through different training courses such as: the 4th edition of the Bio-Business School, the 2nd edition of the “From Science to Business” course, organised by the BIST institutes in collaboration with the ESADE Business School and through different business seminars and round tables.
Driven by its commitment to promote entrepreneurship, the TBDO team actively supported the 2016 awardee of the S2B Concept challenge 2nd edition. As a result of team work, the spin-off Microomics S.L. was successfully incorporated in September 2017 and is now actively developing and delivering high-quality metagenomics solutions to companies and research institutes.
In addition, in 2017 TBDO managed 7 projects under its Commercialization Gap Fund programme. It should be mentioned that one of these projects, by Jordi Hernandez, a researcher at Juan Valcárcel’s laboratory and a young entrepreneur participating in the CRG Entrepreneur-in-Residence programme, conducted this innovative project with the support of the CaixaImpulse programme as well.
Also noteworthy is the record number of inventions received and assessed (30), the new priority patents filed (2), increasing the number of patent families active during 2017 to 9, and the number of agreements successfully negotiated with companies, which was 89% up on the previous year’s figure. In terms of economic impact for the CRG, the TBDO negotiated and secured around €279,000 (39% increase on the previous year).
In the course of 2017, the TBDO team furthered its engagement in different national and international Biotech/Pharma-related events, such as the Bio International Conference, Bio Europe, the 2nd Annual Translational Microbiome Conference, etc.; and held 153 meetings with companies and investors to discuss CRG’s technology portfolio and potential future collaborations.
Moreover, Pablo Cironi was guest lecturer at the IESE Business School and participated in different round tables to discuss strategies for marketing early-stage innovations.
Overall, 2017 was a very good year, and we envisage a positive entrepreneurial spirit in the coming years at the CRG.