Entrepreneurship Academy, a program recommended by PhD students

Thirty doctoral students have participated in the first edition of the Entrepreneurship Academy, a program focused on doctoral students designed to promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer in the health sector. A free of charge course that has been offered as a pilot to students of five doctoral programs of the UPC Doctoral School (Statistics and Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering) as well as the other members belonging to Xartec Salut (University of Vic, Autonomous University of Barcelona, University of Barcelona, etc).

A total of four very inspiring sessions focused on health start-ups, their life cycle and functioning as an agile tool for transferring technologies to the market and testing business models. International mentors such as Marta Príncep, CEO and co-founder of BHV Partners S.L., Pau Gimeno, vice president of the Richi Childhood Cancer Foundation, Álvaro Ximénez de Olaso, founding member of MR. CHANGE and Joao Curado, CEO and founder of Flomix Biotech.

These days have served to complement existing doctoral programs with an optional training itinerary, where networking has been encouraged and students have been taught how spin-offs are also a professional and personal development option. They have also been useful in encouraging new approaches to developing projects focused on the needs of society. A program recommended by most participating PhD students:

“It was a participatory meeting. Topics were very interesting and challenging, ”said Molood Behbahanipour

“The sessions were good because of the interactions between the speakers and participants in an intimate environment. Teachers were really involved in the business” said Mohammadali Farahpoor

"The program has given us tools to successfully launch health technologies in the market," Saeed Abbas

This is the first joint action between Xartec Salut and the UPC Doctoral School, after signing a collaboration agreement that will improve the promotion of entrepreneurship and training in transfer and innovation in health technologies.

About the Doctoral School

The Doctoral School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) (doctorat.upc.edu/es/escuela) is the academic unit in charge of the organization, coordination and supervision of the courses that lead to obtaining the doctoral degree at the UPC. These learnings are organized in one or more branches of knowledge or in an interdisciplinary way.

About Xartec Salut

Xartec Salut (www.xartecsalut.com) is a technology transfer and valorisation network coordinated and managed by CREB of the UPC and which brings together 17 institutions and 47 research groups in Catalonia. Its main purpose is to promote innovation in health technologies and their commercialisation through licensing agreements and the creation of technology-based companies.

This project is co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).