Barcelona, 21st October. The Clinical Advanced Technologies Initiative (CATI) is an initiative promoted by the Hospital Clínic and Leitat to create a centre dedicated to innovation in hospital technology. Within the context of the CATI initiative, the two founders are launching the CATI Incubator for projects related to Digital Health.
The CATI Incubator has been created to promote the development of Digital Health projects. It will focus on the selection of projects for the development of new technologies to address unmet needs in Spanish and European health systems. Despite the significant growth in the Digital Health sector in recent years, there is still a lack of mechanisms to support entrepreneurs and increase the degree of implementation of these technologies in the health sector.
The incubator will offer acceleration/innovation services to the selected projects, including business development advice, technology and clinical validation services, advice on regulatory requirements, and it will facilitate access to different types of funding. Leitat will make its expertise available to the initiative for attracting public and private funding and access to all its facilities for the development of the projects. The link with the Hospital Clínic offers a unique opportunity to collaborate with health personnel of the highest level, which is an added value for the clinical validation of any of the development phases of the projects.
This infrastructure will have a management and reception office, a co-working area with flexible spaces, modular meeting rooms, common spaces, training areas, as well as a showroom area on new technologies in the digitization of healthcare. Moreover, the entrepreneurs will have access to Leitat's scientific and technological capabilities in biomedicine, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, 3D printing, sensors, IoT and big data, including access to the IA HERMES Centre of Excellence.
“Belonging to the CATI ecosystem will allow participants in the incubator to be on the radar of leading national and international companies in the sector that are linked to the initiative at national and international level, as well as various public sector entities”, says Joan Parra, executive vice president of LEITAT.
"The collaboration between the Hospital Clínic and CATI will make it possible to carry out translational projects to implement new initiatives in the hospital setting. The link between hospitals and the industrial sector represents a great opportunity for generating projects of high added value with extremely talented professionals,” says Dr. Josep Maria Campistol, Director General of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
“This initiative is a tangible step in the development of innovation projects within the field of health. We shall promote innovation by welcoming companies and entrepreneurs to the incubator, in order to generate value that can be transferred to the patient,” states Dr. Lluís Donoso, Coordinator of CATI and Director of the Hospital Clínic Diagnostic Imaging Centre.
We are immersed in a highly competitive period of technological revolution, thanks to a large extent to NGEU resources. The combination and coordination of the traction of large companies in R&D projects, together with the creativity and flexibility of start-ups, ensure the success of technological developments. It is within this work framework that the CATI incubator provides capacity and an international dimension, with the aim of generating and retaining a large part of the value and talent generated locally.
The start-up of the incubator will involve the publication of the offer of access to interested companies and entrepreneurs and the selection of projects through a form that will be evaluated by a committee of experts. So, the initiatives whose proposals are approved will be able to establish themselves in the incubator for a period of one to three years. The duration of the incubation period and the services there will be access to will vary depending on whether the initiatives come from individuals or legal entities, and also on the modality of the incubation (initial, advanced, expert) in which the proposal is classified.
CATI’s aim is to promote transferable technological knowledge in health technology and to link it with the industrial sector, as well as to pursue the generation of qualified jobs, the retention of talent and to increase the competitiveness of the health sector. The incubator will be the first instrument to achieve this.
Initial location in Plaça Catalunya
Initially, and whilst the work is being carried out on CATI’s permanent premises on Carrer Urgell, the incubator will start its activity in Plaça Catalunya in Barcelona within a LEITAT facility.
CATI’s final destination will be a new building that will be built on Carrer Urgell in Barcelona, on a site that is currently occupied by the parish of San Isidro. The new installations will occupy around 8,000 m2 and involve an investment of €21.7M in the new headquarters and €32M in equipping and revitalizing the centre, which will be financed by European funds. The centre will be accredited by ACCIÓ and recognized by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
