Barcelona City Council and the “la Caixa” Foundation today presented the subsidies for the research and innovation projects selected in the 2023 call for proposals. The fourteen subsidised projects provide innovative solutions to urban challenges in two areas (community health and sustainability and climate change), and will share the 2 million euros allocated to this call (1,200,000 euros from Barcelona City Council and 800,000 euros from the “la Caixa” Foundation).

The award ceremony took place in the Saló de Cròniques of Barcelona City Council, attended by the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Finance, Economic Promotion and Tourism, Jordi Valls, and the director of the Area of Relations with Research and Health Institutions of the “la Caixa” Foundation, Ignasi López. This is the fourth edition of these subsidies, the result of successive collaboration agreements signed between the two institutions since 2019. The aim is to increase public-private collaboration in research projects that have a positive impact on the city.

In his speech, Jordi Valls stated that “for the City Council, innovation and science are important for the economic model, but also for the dissemination to society. We must put scientific innovations in the hands of the people”. For his part, Ignasi López stressed that “through research and innovation, we defend the capacity for social transformation, in this case in Barcelona, a world scientific hub”.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Subsidised projects

The fourteen projects that have received these grants were the ones that received the best score out of the 51 submitted. They focus on one of the two themes proposed for this call for proposals: Community health or Sustainability and climate change.

In the field of community health, the projects selected are:

• ENDO-HEALTH. Endometriosis, education and health. Amount subsidised: €149,986.38.
• FAILWATCH. Robots and social assistance for the elderly. Amount subsidised: 149.911,88€.
• UBRAIN.  Urban planning and mental health of the elderly. Amount subsidised: 149,642.70€.
• PANIS. Nutritional poverty and health. Amount subsidised: 149.860,00 €.
• DIGITS. Diagnosis of STDs with optical nanotechnology. Amount subsidised: 145,300.00 €.
• +ÀCTIU. Active and healthy cities; people with chronic diseases. Subsidized amount: €149,291.00.
• GCM-BCN. Mental health, medication, rights and citizenship. Amount subsidised: €147,553.00.
• environMENTALment. Impact of environmental pollution on brain health. Amount subsidised: 149,475.90€.
• CIRCULATE.  Human exposure in tyre rubber. Amount subsidised: 149,944.50€.

In the area of sustainability and climate change, the following projects have been selected:

• URBANSOSTEN-LOCALRETAIL. Urban sustainability and proximity trade in Barcelona. Amount subsidised: 85,213.63€.
• EUR2J. From the Euro to the Joule; energy transition. Amount subsidised: 149,860€.
• BAMAC. Barcelona, Climate Friendly Metropolis. Subsidised amount: 109,646.00€.
• BotNet. Delivery of packages with autonomous vehicles. Amount subsidised: 145,548.29€.
• MICROCOSMOS_BCN. Improvement of soil biodiversity in Barcelona. Amount subsidised: 150,000.00€.

The details of the projects can be consulted on the Barcelona Science and Universities website. A total of 34 entities are involved, taking into account one of the objectives of the call, which was to seek synergies between different centres and research teams. Seven of the projects are led by a university and seven by a research centre.

Projects of the 2021 call

At today’s award ceremony in the Salón de Crónicas, videos were also presented with some of the conclusions of the projects that were subsidised in the 2021 call for proposals, after the 18 months during which projects of this type of subsidy must be carried out. The summary video of these projects can be viewed through this link and the individual videos of each one will be added shortly to the Barcelona Science and Universities website.