The fourth edition of the Open Innovation Forum, a program that allows companies to share their innovation challenges on an online platform and get proposals from research groups and centers, was held in 2021.

The first meeting of the program to bring together companies and research groups was held in July. The OIF culminated with a second meeting in December, where an agenda of pre-established interviews allowed companies and researchers to meet to explore new collaboration opportunities. Both meetings were held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program is open year-round and divided into six areas of knowledge: healthcare and life sciences, food, chemistry, energy and resources, industrial systems and mobility. There were a total of 48 problem-solvers and 24 companies with 42 innovation challenges, and more than 80 meetings held.

The Open Innovation Forum was organized by Biocat, Bosch i Gimpera Foundation, UPF Ventures, UAB Research Park (PRUAB) and the UPC Technology Center (CIT-UPC). Other collaborators included ICMAB (CSIC), Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB), Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), University of Barcelona (UB), University of Girona, Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Rovira i Virgili University (URV Foundation), Pere Virgili Institute (IISPV), CSIC, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR), Food Innovation Network and XRES4S, ACCIÓ and CataloniaBio&HealthTech.

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Open Innovation Forum 2021 registration process