Science and Innovation

Space for gathering and active listening with city stakeholders to collect, organise and synthesise plans and projects related to accelerating innovation and knowledge transfer. In this financial year, the goal is to have an accurate map and to identify opportunities associated with existing facilities or new centralities.

Barcelona Investment Fund is a venture capital fund targeted at emerging companies in sectors that are strategic for the city's economy and innovation, technology, health, the blue economy or creative industries which contribute to creating quality jobs.

This is the third fund promoted by the City Council, which has been allocated 30 million euros. It joins the Accelera Fund (10 million euros), which was created to reactivate private investment in the city, and the Deep Tech Fund, which was also earmarked 10 million euros.

Strategy to position Barcelona as a scientific and innovation capital in Spain and southern Europe via actions and initiatives with a national and international agenda that promote local assets and aim to attract opportunities in the knowledge economy to the city and its metropolitan region.

With centres like the ICFO and the BSC, as well as its business community and digital ecosystem, Barcelona is starting at an advantage to develop quantum communication projects that have a direct impact on sectors like cybersecurity and telecommunications. The goal is to accelerate projects linked to quantum technologies and communications to enhance regional contributions to Europe’s strategic autonomy.

Barcelona is the capital of the BioRegion of Catalonia. The figures speak for themselves: with 2.106 billion euros of direct foreign investment in the BioRegion and more than 5,800 jobs (2020-2024), Barcelona has become the global city with the second highest number of clinical trials per million inhabitants. 

This line aims to take advantage of the robust dynamics of the life science and health ecosystem, as well as its potential impact on the economy of the city and the metropolitan region, to promote new initiatives in key strategic sectors like advanced therapies, digital health and the neurosciences.

Europe is firmly committed to achieving technological sovereignty in critical sectors of the knowledge economy. The semiconductor sector is one of them, and a series of promotion and support policies are being rolled out in the city to make it a dynamic hub where both local and international talent find a state-of-the-art ecosystem with cutting-edge research institutions and public universities as emblems of its strategy, as well as lifelong and professional training.