Reports

General

Catalan spin-offs on the rise

Before 2001, Spanish universities had only created 18 spin-off companies. Now there are hundreds of them, and many of them are Catalan. Spin-offs are companies created by scientists at a university or scientific institution to directly exploit the fruits of their research

JOAN CARLES AMBROJO | APRIL 1ST, 2011

In the 21^st century, and even more so in times of economic crisis, scientific knowledge is fundamental to economic and social progress. However, the fruits of university research are often nor taken full advantage of, and, when they are, the transition to the world outside the campus is not always easy.

One solution for transferring this knowledge to the economy at large are spin-offs, a phenomenon common at American and British universities but relatively new to our country. In a spin-off a researcher, teacher or student creates a new company to commercially exploit their research gains. Prior to 2001, Spanish universities had only created 18 spin-offs. Currently, there are hundreds, many of which are in Catalonia; although along the way some exciting ventures have not panned out in the end.

Universities have an important role in creating jobs and in the nation’s economyWith their innovative capacity, Catalan universities play an important role in generating jobs and economic growth in Spain. The most recent survey study of spin-offs arising from universities and their impact on wealth creation – Caracterización, análisis e impacto de las empresas surgidas de los Trampolines Tecnológicos catalanes (The profiles, analysis and impact of spin-offs from Catalan technological springboards) – was published in 2009 by ACC1Ó. It was led by Christian Serarols, professor of the Department of Business Economics at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

According to this study, until 2006 Spain had created 530 spin-offs, and in the period 2001-2007, there were 262 active spin-offs in Catalonia, of which 50.1% were considered fruit of the formal transfer of technology or knowledge, 44.6% were formed by university staff, and the remaining 15.3% were other types of spin-offs.

A profitable business alternative

This alternative business model is beneficial for everyone: the researcher can become an entrepreneur, while society, through the university, gets a return in the form of the technological innovation, through a licensing agreement or technology transfer (in some cases the university may receive shares in the new company).

The profile of these new entrepreneurs is that of an individual between 30 and 40 years old, most often a professor or academic researcher, and normally with the academic title of PhD, according to the study El spin-off universitario en España como modelo de Creación de empresas intensivas en tecnología (The university spin-off as a model for creating technology companies in Spain), promoted by the Directorate General of Small and Medium Enterprises of Spain’s Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade.

The key is to identify a business opportunity associated with the scientific expertiseIn these cases, the main reason for creating a company is because a business opportunity related to the research or innovation has been identified and because this opportunity is very difficult to exploit commercially from within the faculties. The founders of spin-offs are closely linked to the university, are very involved in the venture and make up much of its workforce, the study says.

Biotechnology, healthcare and information technology

In Catalonia, the creation of spin-offs has mainly occurred in sectors where the Catalan universities are most active in research: biotechnology, healthcare and information technology. By far the most fertile grounds for spin-offs has been the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), which has created over 60 new companies since 1998.

For example, the UPC’s Data Management Group led to last year’s creation of Sparsity Technologies, a spin-off which has patented technology to provide ultrafast responses to complex queries on huge databases, such as Wikileaks. This company has worked on the detection of potentially fraudulent real estate transactions, the analysis of the causes of cancer, and even pharmacological data to see how drug use progresses. The group has also developed BIBEX, a specific prototype for the Ministry of Science and Innovation for exploring the world of scientific publications and relating specific bibliographies published in the international arena.

Success stories

In the UPC not everything is computer chips and programming; research there has also led to companies that work with the environment. One company uses waste paper as a substitute for plastic or timber. By employing biotechnology techniques, the new material developed by Biprocel, on the campus of the Polytechnic in Terrassa, is fire and waterproof, easily molded, and provides good sound and heat insulation.

The day the singer Bjork used the Reactable, a unique electronic musical instrument in the form of a table form and which is played by manipulating some simple objects, the dream was fulfilled of its creators, researchers at Barcelona’s Pompeu Fabra University ( UPF) whose company Reactable Systems now has moved into the lucrative mobile phone format.

Also, in 2006, Barcelona Music & Audio Technologies (BMAT), the first spin-off to operate under license from the UPF’s Music Technology Research Group, was launched. Located in the IT company incubator of Barcelona Activa, it was jumpstarted by a soft loan of €300,000 from Spain’s Center for Technological and Industrial Development. Its products target the entertainment and music industry. As one of its founders, Vadim Tarasov, said, BMAT technologies allow computers and mobile devices to understand music in a manner similar to that of humans in order to help the devices select the right songs to fit the user's mood.

Something as humble as bread can be a source of business innovation from the universitySince 2001, the Research Park of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), equipped with spin-off incubators, has seen the creation of some 50 companies. The numbers of new companies have continued to rise, and despite the current uncertainty surrounding scientific investment in 2010, the UAB saw 10 new companies founded from six scientific clusters (life sciences, environment and sustainability, nanotechnology and nanoelectronics, information and communication technology, food technology and animal health, and the social sciences and humanities).

Something as humble as bread can be a source of business innovation from the university. For instance, from the UAB’s Food Technology Plant Special Research Centre the company Felnuti was created to market a high-quality, gluten-free bread.

The life sciences

To encourage the development of these businesses from Catalan universities, one of the main recommendations cited in the ACC1Ó study is to encourage growth in the life sciences, a field rich in R+D opportunities, which is hiring more doctors and generating more patents.

One of the latest examples is the case of NANOMOL Technologies, born from a research group at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (of Spain’s National Research Council and the Biomedical Research Center Network in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine. It specializes in nanotechnology applicable both to improving the effectiveness of medicines as well as for making food coloring and skin creams.

From within the University of Barcelona has emerged a handful of biotech and pharmaceutical companies including Oryzon, founded in 2000. The newer ones are IND, ImmunNovative Developments, which develops new biological therapies useful in sepsis and other immune-based inflammations; VCN Biosciences, which makes viral therapies for solid tumors; and Neurotec Pharma, which works on the creation of new molecules for the treatment and diagnosis of diseases affecting the central nervous system.

The Bosch i Gimpera Foundation is the UB's center for technology transfer. It applies for about 25 patents and creates between two to five technology-based companies each year.

Two to five technology-based companies arise from of the University of Barcelona each yearTo cite one of the spin-offs to come out of the University of Girona, Microbial stands out for having developed a kit for detecting bacteria in food in 24 hours instead of the average length of six days. In the case of the Rovira i Virgili University in Tarragona, Integrated Microsystems for the Quality of Life (iMicroQ) is the second spin-off recently born from the ATIC Innovation Center.

Other measures that these trampolines can take to increase the number of spin-offs, besides applying more resources, is to encourage that spin-offs carry out more R+D activities with their universities of origin.

Lastly, sometimes these spin-offs even find a market within the academic world. CampusMovil.net, which arose from the University of Vic, is an example. It is dedicated to the promotion of service platforms for mobile devices to the university community.

Subjects of the article