First meeting of the general advice of the Barcelona Innovation Valley alliance (BIVA) to boost competitiveness and innovation in Sant Cugat

BIVA’s General Advice first meeting took place this Tuesday at ESADE’s Innovation Promenade in Sant Cugat del Vallès.

Ferràs stressed that “international research is growing, Catalonia is currently below the world average, taking into account the indicator of R&D over GDP, which stands at 1.89%, while at the international level, it is 2.71%. The world’s major powers are investing in R&D, and if Catalonia does not want to fall behind, it needs a radical change. We need to reactivate innovation ecosystems and develop scientific clusters and technology centers, among others.

Next, the foundational projects of BIVA were presented and the following were highlighted:

1. Urban Sandbox, is an instrument that has already been implemented in the city of Valencia and whose aim is to provide start-up companies and technology and research centers with the city as a real stage for testing the development of new products and services with the aim of achieving success in the market.
2. European Commission’s European City of Innovation Award. The call rewards those European cities that are brave enough to open their governance practices to experimentation and push the limits of technology for the benefit of their citizens. Specifically, this candidacy is aimed at towns and cities with a population of between 50,000 and 249,999 inhabitants and awards 500,000 euros to the winner and 50,000 euros to each of the two runners-up. In addition to the monetary reward, the prize provides great international visibility. Josep Miquel Piqué, who was in charge of explaining the status of the candidacy, said ‘The candidacy is a way of recognizing Sant Cugat’s work towards innovation and is a key lever for the projection of the BIVA’.

Concepció Curet, manager of Sant Cugat Empresarial, introduced the BIVA governance model and the role of its members and then outlined the next steps to be taken, which will be the development of the BIVA Action Plan 2025-2027, to be presented at the next meeting of the General Council in March 2025.

Curet remarked that “BIVA is already up and running. The aim now is to identify and prioritize projects to move from planning to action in an agile, aligned, and coordinated way with the economic, social, and business sectors. We want BIVA to be a driving force for everyone who participates in it, positioning us as a benchmark in innovation and competitiveness”.

The event concluded with an open debate among the members in which the attendees were able to share their thoughts on the future of the project.

The Sant Cugat Innovation Alliance is known as the Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance (BIVA), with the slogan Sant Cugat is BIVA. The project already has a website biva.cat and aims to jointly promote and foster actions and strategies among members to encourage the development of talent, promote innovative entrepreneurship, facilitate knowledge transfer, foster the innovation ecosystem, and promote the city internationally.