Twenty years of the Barcelona Science Park as a pole for scientific and business innovation

Twenty years later after its launch, the Barcelona Science Park is one of the role models in Europe in scientific, technological and business innovation in the field of life sciences; a talent attraction pole where more than a hundred public and private entities interact in a privileged environment creating synergies that strengthen collaborations and knowledge exchange to create a new business tissue based on new technologies.

On September 20, the Barcelona Science Park started its activities to commemorate these twenty years with a birthday party for the more than 2,700 professionals who build the community of PCB. The activity was opened by the rector of the University of Barcelona, Joan Elias, and the general director of PCB, Maria Terrades.

“Twenty years after its birth, the Barcelona Science Park is the pride of our institution. We have some of the best researchers of the country working here. Therefore, it is not only a key piece for the future of the University of Barcelona but also for the ecosystem of research in Catalonia and in Spain”, said the Rector.

Maria Terrades noted that “the Park has become public and private research infrastructure in Europe and is a daily challenge and honor directing it. Getting to these two decade requires developing the project constantly, and we want to celebrate the achieved goals with all people and institutions who made it possible, with this festive activity and an institutional one we are working on for the next weeks”.

The activity was carried out thanks to the sponsorship of Enantia, Esteve, Grupo Ordesa, the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC), and Quiagen; support from Bellavista, the Scientific and Technological Centers of the University of Barcelona (CCiTUB), the Barcelona Institute of Economics (IEB), Ferrer, Iproteos and ProteoDesign, and the collaboration of Estrella Damm, Ferrovial Servicios and Suez.

100,000 square metres full of research, entrepreneurship and innovation

Located in the Barcelona Knowledge Campus (Diagonal Sud), the Barcelona Science Park is a dynamic ecosystem with an innovative community built by more than a hundred public and private entities and 2,700 professionals, who develop their activity in emerging areas of life sciences.

Four big research centers are located in the spaces of PCB: the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC), and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) -awarded as centers of excellence Severo Ochoa-, the Molecular Biology Institute of Barcelona (IBMB-CSIC) -with an excellence unit Maria de Maeztu: Unit of Structural Biology- and the National Center for Genomic Analysis (CNAG-CRG), which is part of the Singular Scientific and Technical Infrastructure Map (ICTS) of Spain.

Seventy-five affiliated companies (from R&D companies to spin offs and startups) develop their tasks in the park, as well as 11 non-profit entities, and 12 groups and centers of the University of Barcelona (UB), among them are Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, the office for knowledge transparency, technology, and innovation of the UB.

Moreover, the PCB offers a wide range of scientific and technological services for the R&D -for the installed entities and external companies, national and international-, which include the offering of technological platforms, the Scientific and Technological Centers of the UB (CCiTUB) and the ICCUB-Tech Unit of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB).

These services are completed with a dynamization program of the PCB seeking to double the interaction among its members and the innovation environment.

The Barcelona Science Park has other strategy lines such as the organization of scientific dissemination activities to bring research closer to people, favouring dialogue between the public and the researchers, and promoting vocations among youngsters. At the moment, the program Recerca en Societat is organizing more than a hundred annual activities in which around 5,000 people take part.

The first scientific park in Spain

The origins of scientific and technological parks are linked to the idea of an entrepreneur university. Born in the fifties in Silicon Valley -where in 1951 the Stanford Research Park was born- the model was moved to Europe in the late sixties, in the United Kingdom and France.

The University of Barcelona was the leading one in Spain when in 1994, its Governing Board approved the spaces for the future creation of the first science park in the country, aiming to have an instrument to favour transfer of scientific and technical abilities for business and society in general.

The project was developed after its creation, on September 26, 1997, by the Barcelona Science Park Foundation, initially formed by the University of Barcelona with the support of Bosch i Gimpera Foundation and Caixa Catalunya, which was later joined by Generalitat de Catalunya, the Barcelona City Council, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), BBVA and Santander Bank.

Building the architectural project -which started in 1998 and was carried out in different stages until 2012- counted on the support of the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and Plan E.
The PCB model, as a key structure in the innovation system, with university, institutional and business research centers, is a unique space with a powerful technological offering, and served as a role model for scientific parks that were later created in Spain.

Website of PCB 20th anniversary 20è