Sant Cugat celebrates the first working meeting of the European project Health Cities with new international partners

This kick-off meeting brought together the new partners to initiate an international collaboration that aims to promote innovation in the field of health and life sciences.

Stephan Bouman, Head of Project Portfolio Management at Medicon Valley Alliance (Copenhagen), gave a keynote speech entitled ‘The Life Science & Health innovation ecosystem’. His intervention served as a starting point to share key concepts for the development of innovative territories, focusing on the three main axes of the project: governance, services, and talent.

The representatives of the European partners also participated in an interactive workshop led by B.Link, which allowed them to identify and align shared objectives between the different participating cities.

During the meeting, several immediate steps were agreed to ensure the success of the collaboration:

By 30 June 2025, Regional Stakeholder Groups (RSGs) will be set up: local groups made up of key companies and institutions in each city. These partnerships will play a fundamental role in defining strategies to strengthen the ecosystem of innovation in health and life sciences in each territory.

• The first study visit of the project will be held on 26, 27, and 28 October 2025 in Sant Cugat del Vallès. This face-to-face meeting will allow sharing best practices and deepening collaboration between project partners, as well as giving visibility to the local ecosystem and the key role of the Barcelona Innovation Valley Alliance (BIVA).

Health Cities is a European project that seeks to improve local and regional policies to promote the development of high-value sectors such as life sciences and health. The aim is to support the creation of new models of innovative ecosystems, especially designed for start-ups and SMEs, through concrete actions in three key areas:

• Governance and public-private collaboration.
• Business support services
• Attraction and retention of specialised talent.

Health Cities is made up of new partners from seven European countries, including local governments, innovation agencies, and research organisations. The members are:

• Ajuntament de Sant Cugat del Vallès (Spain) – project co-ordinating partner
• Medicon Valley Alliance (Denmark)
• Medicon Village and Lunds kommun (Sweden)
• Pannon Business Network and National Development Centre (Hungary)
• Ville de Toulouse (France)
• ROM Utrecht Region (Netherlands)
• Ivano-Frankivsk City Council (Ukraine)

The Health Cities project is part of the European programme Interreg Europe 2021-2027, co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The main objective of this programme is to improve regional public policies through cooperation and exchange of experiences between European regions.

Interreg Europe supports initiatives that contribute to smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and promotes collaboration between public administrations, research centres and businesses to tackle shared challenges.

To find out all the details of the project, you can visit the official Interreg Europe website: